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OLD TIMES IN HUNTINGTON. 



AX 



Historical Address, 



BY 



HON. HENRY C. PLATT, 



DELIVERED AT THE CEXTEXNTAL CELEBRATION AT 
HUNTIXGTUN. SUFFOLK COUNTY, N. Y., ON THE 



rWITHADltlTlONAL NOTES AM) FAMILY bKETCIJF.S.I 



To-day a century's honors crown 

The land for which our prayers are given. 
And endless honors pouring down 

Shall bless it in the sight of heaven : 
So millions yet unborn shall rise 

To hail the hour wliich now we hail, 
Its glory sparkling in their eyes 

When we have passed beyond the vale. 




nUNTINGTON : 

LONG ISLAXDEa PRIXT, 
1S7G. 







CENTENNIAL PROCLAMATIONS. 



I. 

The following is a copy of a proclamation made by- 
President Grant, May 25, 1876 : 

Whereas. A joint resolution of the Senate and House of Represen- 
tatives of the United States was duly approved on the 13th day of 
March last, which resolution is as follows : Be it 

Resolved, By the Senate and House of Eepreseutatives of the United 
States of America in Congress Assembled, That it be and is hereby 
recommended by the Senate and House of Representatives to the peo- 
ple of the several States that they assemble in their several counties 
or towns on the approaching Centemiial anniversary of our National 
Independence and that they cause to have delivered on such day an 
historical sketch of such county or town from its formation, and that 
a copy of said sketch be filed in print or manuscript in the Clerk's 
office of said county, and an additional copy in print or manuscript be 
filed in the office of the Librarian of Couffrew, to the intent that a 
complete record may be thus obtained of the progress of our institu- 
tions during the first centennial of our existence ; and 

Whereas, Tt is desmcd proper that such recommendation be brought 
to the notice aud knowledge of the people of the United States, now, 
therefore, I Ulysses S. Grant, President of the United States, do here- 
by declare and make known the same, in the hope Ihat the object of 
such resolution may meet the approval of the people of the United 
States, aud that proper steps may be taken to cany the same into 
etfect. 

II. 

The following is a copy of a proclamation made by 
President Grant, June 26, 1876 : 

The Centennial anniversary of the day on which the people of the 
United States declared theii right to a separate aud equal station 



4 

among the power-j of the earth seetus to demand an exceptional obsoiT- 
ance. The founders of the Government, at its feebleness, invoked the 
blessings and the protection of a divine Providence, and the thirteen 
colonies and three millions of people have expanded into a nation of 
strength and numbers eommaudiug the position which then was assert- 
ed and for which fervent prayers were then ofl'ered It seems fitting 
that on the occurrence of the hundredth anniversary of our existence 
as a nation a grateful acknowledgement be made to Almighty God for 
the protection and bounties which he has vouchsafed to om- beloved 
country. I therefore invite the good people of the United States on 
the approaching Fourth day of July, in addition to the usual observances 
with which they are accustomed to greet the return of the day, further 
in such manner and at such time as in their respective localities and 
religious associations may be the most convenient, to mark its recur- 
rence by some public religious and devout thanksgiving to Almighty 
God for the blessings which have been bestowed upon us as a nation 
during the century of om* existence, and humbly to invoke a continu- 
ance of His favor and of His protection. 

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal 
of the United States to be affixed. 

Done at the city of Washington the twenty-sixth day of June, in the 
year of our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and Seventy-six, 
and of the Independence of the United States of America the 
One Hundredth. 

By the President, U. S. GRANT. 

Hamilton Pish, Secretary of State. 



THE D^Y. 

The One Hundredth Anniversary of American Independ- 
ence was celebrated in the Town of Huntington with un- 
usual enthusiasm and display. A large procession was 
formed under direction of Grand Marshal Major Thomas 
Young and his aides, all mounted, viz.: 

Supervisor, STEPHEN 0. ROGERS, 
Sherifi' EGBERT G. LEWIS. 

Constable, PETER M. TRAINER, 

FRANK M. GROSSMAN, 
GEORGE 0. WOOD, 
ANSEL B. GILDERSLEEVE, 
HENRY SCUDDER, 
GEORGE W. CONKLIN, 
AUGUSTUS H. SCUDDER, 
JOHN McKAY. 



5 

The following was the order of procession : 
Brass Baud. 
Speakers. 
Town officers and invited guests. 
Various representatives of the U. S. Govemnient. 
The old cannon, preceded by the American Flag and followed l)y the 
soldiers of 1776 and 1870. 
Banner of \7ashington and motto 
The Old Bell of 1776. 
Angel of Peace, guarding the Liberty Bell. — Miss Alice Velsor. 
Banner of the United States (coat of arms). 
Representation of the Goddess of Liberty and the thirteen origmal 
States, .personated by the following young ladies, riz.: 
Goddfss of Liberty, Miss MARY A. HEXDRICKSON ; 
Thirteen States : 
Nellie Conklin, Emma Ritter, 

Mary Prime, Cora Brock, 

•Lizzie Brush, Olive Secord, 

Florence Howard, Cora Howard, 

Addle McKay, Lillie Jarvis, 

Susie Jones, Lillie Fancher, 

Flora Rogers. 

Banner of New York State (coat of arms). 

Representations of Justice and Libertj^ : Justice, Miss Sarah Ritchie ; 

Liberty, Miss Laura Yelsor. 

Education — headed bv a bauuer and wagon with emblematic represen- 
tations — followed by members of Professions, Board of Edu- 
cation and Trustees of the vailous scbcoi districts of 
the Towr, Prncipals, Teachers and Children 
of Schools, with theu* school banners. 
Fire Companies of the Town. 
The Press, represented by a printing case on a wagon, an emblematic 

banner and files of newspapers. 
Agriculture, with banner and wagon representing Ceres and Pomona, 
enthi'oued upon products of the soil, followed by 
agricultural machinery, wagons, etc. 
Commerce, headed by a banner representing Neptune with his trident, 
followed by a long-boat on a wagon, containing capstan and 
oars, properly decorated with bunting and manned 
by sailors. Following this, carriages with 
representative captains of our ports. 
Trade, manufactures and artizans, each bearing emblematic banners 
and followed by wagons and carriages with rep- 
resentatives of the various branches. 
Ba^e Ball Club. 
Citizen-^. 

The route of the procession was from Piime Avenue 
through Main street to Prospect street, through Prospect 
to High street ; through High street to New Yoik avenue ; 



through New York avenue to Main street ; through Main 
street to Carly's Grove, at the brow of Cold Spring Hill, 
where the exercises of the day took place, upon a large plat- 
foim, and in the seated grove, in the presence of two thous- 
and five hundred assembled people. The dwellings of the 
inhabitants were gaily decorated with flags and the ToM-n of 
Huntington put on its holiday attire. National salutes were 
fired from sunset on the Third to midnight on the Fourth, 
at intervals (one hundred guns in all) under the direction of 
Messrs. Dodge, Conklin and Lindsay, and the bells of the 
town welcomed the day at early dawn. 

The following committees had charge of the details of 
the Centennial Celebration : 

COMMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS : 

Rev. Wm. W. Kuox, Chairman, 
Heury T. Fuunell, 
Amos P. Conklin, 



Charles E. Shepard, 
Nelson Sanimis, 
John McKay, 



Thomas Aitkin. 

FINANCE COMMITTEE : 

Ur. Wm. D. Woodeud, fhairman, George M. Tilestcm, Treasunr. 

Isaac Rogers, Frank M. Crossmau, J. Amherst "WoodhuU, 

TT. Wilton Wood, Arthur T. Hurd, Thomas Aitkin, 

Hiiani Y. Baylis. 

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: 



M 

Edward (\Trll, 
Henry Loekwood, 
Ansel 1?. Gildersleeve 
George M. Tileston. 
S. Lee .lurvis, 
Joseph Lewis, 
Clias. V. Scudder, 
John Carl!, 
Lemuel Cavil, 
Silas Jarvis, 
George Van Ausdail, 
Warr.'H B. Sammis, 



oreland Conklra, Char 
Isaac Watts Roe, 
David G. Velsor, 

, Daniel L Baylis, 
Stephen Gardiner, 
Joseph Irwm, 
Jesse Carll, 
John N". Robhins, 
William Godl're}', 
Timothy Oakley, 
William Brush," 
Walt'jr Hewlett, 
Sanmel J. Brush, 



rman, 

Garret F. Eaton, 
Nathaniel G. Brush. 
Albert Hopper, 
Henry C. Shadbolt, 
M. E. Bulling, 
Egbert G. Lewis, 
Carl] S. Burr, 
Egbert Carll, 
John C. Baylis, 
George W. IBrown, 
Buel' Titus, 
0. Smith Sammis. 



PEACE OFFICERS OF THE DAY : 

ICgbert G. Lkwis, Shn-iff of Suffolk Coicnty. 
.__,, Sfuriiil l)i put;/ S/uriffx : 
Stephen Hloxom, Albert Walters. Daniel Pearsall, 

Joseph Vauderbilt, William Day, Coles Hendriekson, 

Henry C. Sliadboit, 'William 11. ('onklin. 

(^inxtahh s : 
Peter M. 'Fraiuer, Jacob DeLmig. 



7 
COMMITTEE ON MUSIC : 

Kev. J. J. Crowley, Chairman, 
Thomas Aitkiu, Moreland Conklin. 

The programme of exercises at Carly's Grove was as 
follows : 

1 Music by the Band Hail Columbia. 

2 Opening Prayer Kev. MosKS L. Scuddkr, LL. D. 

3 Reading Declaration ot ludepeiuleuce Douglas Conklin. 

4 Salute 

5 Music by the Baud Red, White and Blue. 

6 lutrocluctJiy Remarks by the Chairman S. W. Gaines. 

7 Centennial Hymn " Singing by Schools. 

8 Address Hon. H. J. Scitdder. 

9 Music by the Band Yankee Doodle. 

10 Historical Address Hon. H. C. Platt. 

11 America Singing by Schools. 

1 2 Doxology By the Audience. 

13 Music by the Band March. 

14 Benediction Rev. M. C. B. Oakley. 

1 5 N"ational Salute of 38 Guns 

At the conclusion of the exercises a vote of thanks was 
passed to the speakers of the day, and on motion of J. Am 
herst Woodhull, seconded by Jarvis R. Rolph, it was unani- 
mously voted that Hon. Henry C. Platt be requested to 
fmnish a copy of his Historical Address for publication, in 
pamphlet form, and that one copy thereof, in print, be filed 
in the office of the Clerk of the County of Suffolk, and an 
additional copy be filed in the office of the Librarian of 
Congress, at Washington, in accordance with the resolution 
of Congress of March 13, 1876, and the proclamation of the 
President of the United States of May 25, 1876. 

In the evening there was a grand display of fireworks 
and music at the Grove. 



Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentleman : — 

The Senate and Representatives of the Nation, in Con- 
oress assembled, have recommended the universal and 
special observance of this Day. 

The President of the United States has proclaimed the 
suggestion throughout the land, that as a part of the prop- 
er exercises of this Centennial occasion, the People cause 
to have delivered an historical sketch of their County or 
Town. 

To-day, the Nation, State, County and Town are looking 
away from the glowing hills of the future, and gazing back 
to the "twilight and dim valleys of the jiast," through which 
their Fathers journeyed. With reverence and emotion, 
they this day re touch the pictures on Memory's w^all, brush 
away the dust of oblivion, and rescue, as far as may be, the 
relics of the past from the invisible fingers of decay. 

We have already heard from our fellow Townsman, Hon. 
Heniy J. Scudder, in his eloquent Address, of the Nation's 
struggles, the Nation's trials, and the Nation's final victo- 
ry, in the days of the E evolution : I now respectfully in- 
vite your attention and your thoughts to a more limited 
sphere of action, nearer home, and within the boundaries 
of the ancient and venerable Town of Huntington. Our 
ears have listened to the Grand Music of the Storm-Cloud 
of War, and the Hurricane of Rebellion, that swept over 
the land as a mighty and resistless ocean ; let us heed also, 
the ligliter breezes that rustle among the flowers, or play 
over the babbling streamlet that sparkles in the Sun. (Ap- 
plause.) 

The recorded history of Huntington, during its early 



9 
settlement, and especially during the Revolutionary War, 
is fragmentary, scattered, disconnected, brief and incom- 
plete. 

The explorer can readily trace the course of rivers from 
where they flow into the sea, but when he enters and de- 
lineates their numerous branches, and seeks to find the 
fountains whence all the waters issue, he finds himself be- 
wildered, and wanders in the wilderness at hazard. So he, 
who leaves the beaten track, and branches off into narrow- 
er paths, to learn the history of particular times and places, 
men and manners, opinions and practices, finds his task 
most difficult and his labor often m vain. Like stars at 
daybreak, which have beamed brightly through the long 
night, the men of old have faded away, and the relics, ti'a- 
ditions and memories, connected with their trials, their 
troubles and their triumphs, will soon be covered up forever. 

We turn to dust, and all our miglitiest works 
Die l-oo ; the deep foundations that we lay. 
Time ploughs them up. and not a trace remains : 
We build with what we deem eternal rock ; 
A distant age asks where the faljric stood. 

[Applause.] 
For more than one hundred years j)iior to the Revolu- 
tionary War, our Fathers lived and died in this lovely Val- 
ley, and he who would faithfully sketch the local history of 
the Town of Huntington, in this day of retrospect and re- 
joicing, cannot well avoid brief mention of its birth as a 
community ; of its ways, manners and customs, long before 
its population were called upon to endure their hardships, 
tribulations and losses, in the National Contest of 1776. 

The first settlers of Huntington were a body of men, 
equally distinguished for the soundness of their morals and 
the purity of their lives. They were characterized by pe 
cnliar sternness of principle, and singular exactness in the 
discharge of every duty. They regarded exevj species of 
vice with a kind of instinctive abhorrence. Prodigality and 
licentiousness they branded v/ith infamy, and often punish- 
ed with severity. 

Tlie spirit that animated the Fathers of the Town, in the 



10 

early stages of their settlement, may be seen in the record 
of their proceedings before Magistrates, in their local laws 
and regulations ; and if a misguided zeal, or an imperfect 
acquaintance with the rights and duties of the social state, 
occasionally betrayed them into acts of personal oppression, 
the efficacy of sound principles soon corrected their errors 
and gave birth to milder and nobler sentiments. In those 
early days, the Magistrate and the Minister, both servants 
of the Town, displayed equal zeal in the defence of public 
order and good morals. There was not exactly a union of 
"Church and State," but a union of sentiment and effort — a 
union of all good citizens, having for its object, the promo- 
tion of that purity, which exalts a community, and a suppres- 
sion of those evils, which are the reproach and ruin of any 
people. We do well to venerate the memory of those men, 
whose incorruptible integrity, ardent love of liberty, and 
sacred regard for good morals and pure government, laid 
the foundation of this Town on a firm and lasting base. — 
They adorned and blessed their day and generation. 

Ill paths of glory, wealth and fame 

They had not cared to roam ; 
Their glory was— an honest name, 

Their lortune was— their home. 

[Applause.] 
The Town of Hmitington was first settled in 1653—223 
years ago. The settlers were Englishmen. The Pioneers, 
who formed the settlement, consisted originally of Eleven 
families, who found their way across the Sound from Sand- 
wich, Massachusetts, coming through the Connecticut Val- 
ley. They were soon joined by others of the New Haven 
Colony. 

Three of the settlers made a purchase of land, comprising 
six square miles, of the Indians, for some trifling' trinkets, 
for the benefit of the whole. The land was then claimed 
and owned by the Matinnecock tiibe of Indians, who occu- 
pied the valley near the Harbor and were the Indii.n Pro- 
prietors c f Huntington. They were few in number rmd weak 
in spirit, having been greatly reduced by a wr.r with the 



11 

Peqxiocls of Connecticut, and by a pestilence that had swept 
over the Island, before the advent of the English. 

When the first settlers landed their families and house- 
hold goods on the shores of our Bay in 1653, there were 
only thirty families of Indians, whose huts and wigwams 
were scattered aboiit the head of the Harbor. 

They sold their land cheap. Their money was "wam- 
pum," made from fragments of sea shells, with which the 
shores aboundecl. The white people soon learned how to 
manufacture "'wampum." This was "hard money," but it 
became immensely "inflated." The result was, that the 
Indians soon had all the wampum, and the white people all 
the land. 

It was a custom of the Indians to require a nixmber of 
"muxes," in payment for their land. These consisted of 
small brad- awls that were very useful in the manufacture of 
"wampum ;" a species of tool for the Indian Treasury De- 
partment. 

Besides wampum, the Indians manufactured earthen ware, 
moccasins, baskets,- stone axes and arrow heads. They 
made canoes of such size and strength as to undertake and 
accomplish voyages in them to Connecticut, and even as 
far as Boston. 

In the "Remonstrance of the Deputies from New Neth 
erland," dated July 28th, 1649, it is stated that the Indians 
were well limbed, slender around the waist, broad shoul- 
dered, all having black hair and brown eyes ; they were 
very nimble and swift of pace, well adapted to travel on 
foot, and to carry heavy burdens ; dirty and slovenly in their 
habits, and as tawny as Gipsies. Their clothing consisted 
of a piece of deer-skin, leather or elk-hide around the body. 
Their shoes or moccasins were made from deer skins or 
corn husks ; they twined both white and black wampum 
around their heads, neck and waist, and in their ears, and 
thus, says the quaint chronicle, "in their way are mighty 
fine." They frequently smeared their skin and hair with 
grease. The women planted coin, cut and hauled firewood, 
and also performed domestic duties. The men were gene- 



12 

rally lazy. A lady friend suggests that the last mentioned 

fact is true of other races than the Indians, [Laughter.] 

Their dwellings were constructed of hickory poles, set 
in the ground, and bent bow fashion, like arches, and then 
covered with bark, which they peeled in quantities for that 
purpose. Their food was poor and gross ; they ate the 
flesh of all sorts of game that the country suj^plied, and did 
not take the trouble of cleaning or dressing the game be- 
fore they cooked it. They made their bread of maize, which 
was of a very indifferent quality. It would be deemed an 
amazing dish for the delicate j^alates of the Nineteenth 
Century. 

Rev. Nathaniel S. Prime, in his history of Long Island, 
states that the Long Island Indians had small idols or im 
ages, which they supposed were acquainted with the will 
of the Gods, and made it known to the Paw-waws or Priests. 
They had a God for each of the four corners of the Earth ; 
the four seasons of the year, and others of the elements of 
nature and the productions of the Earth. 

Hubbard in his "General History of New England" 
claims that the Long Island Indians were fierce and barba- 
rous. Silas Wood's History of Long Island states that 
they were less troublesome to the whites than these north 
of the Sound, and that, although they sometimes commit- 
ted depredations on the jsroperty of the settlers, it does not 
appear that they ever formed any general combination 
against them, or materially interrupted the progress of their 
improvements. 

The first settlers of Huntington however, erected a Fort 
for their safety and protection, and it is probable they ex 
perienced considerable annoyance from the uncivilized na- 
tives. The Fort was destroyed in 1G80, and the material 
was donated to the Town Minister for his firewood. 

It is stated by Charles B. Moore, Esq., in a very interest- 
ing paper on "English and Dutch Intermarriages," that Gov. 
Stuyves; nfc made friends witli the Indians and Indian Chiefs 
on Long Island for the sake of trade with them, and in dc- 



13 
ing so, armed some of them with guns, powder and ball, 
sent from Holland, and permitted arms to be sold them, 
which was quickly discovered on Long Island by seeing the 
Dutch gims in the hands of the Indians, and observing 
their conduct. This rendered all the English agricultural 
settlers unsafe. They dared not stay, excejit under arms, 
and they even carried their arms to church. At Southold, 
the guns found in the hands of the Indians were seized and 
taken, and the town paid a reward for each giui taken from 
an Indian. The Indians, it is said, abused the men in tbe 
field, and the women and children, and killed the oxen and 
cows of the farmers, either to get their meat or to make 
powder horns. Indians were as ready to kill a cow as a 
deer. They could not appreciate the difierence. But with 
the white settlers a cow was very valuable at that day. It 
is stated in an inventory of ancient date, that a dwelling 
house and fifteen acres of cleared land were together valued 
at £8 10s, and two cows were valued in the same inventory, 
at £9 10s. The only record, existing in this town, of any 
trouble fi'om the Indians, states that four Indians came 
into the dwelling house of John Robison at Nequaquatuck 
(Cold Spring) in the night time, in October, 1681, and for- 
cibly stole two guns, tobacco, venison, and some rum out 
of a barrel, (which was, it seems, kept as a precious article 
in the bed-room), and threatened to kill his wife, Jane Rob- 
ison, and a you.ng child. They escaped from the savages 
by running out of the back door through the woods to Hun- 
tington, after making a gallant but unsuccessful effort to 
sav3 that barrel of rum, by rolling it in the bushes. — 
[Laughter.] 

The white settlers were sometimes annoyed by the Indi- 
ans, while hunting for game. West Hills was a resort for 
the hunters, and they erected a stone fort there for pro- 
tection from the Indians, which they occupied in the night 
time while out on the chase. It was located where Mr. 
Lemuel Carll's orchard now is, and a stream of water ran 
close by it. It was a solid stone fort without any doors, 



14 

and was accessible only by a ladder, which its occupants 
placed inside, in the centre, the ends thereof reaching' above 
the height of the fort. In the morning, after a nights rest 
within the safe walls of this structure, it was no uncommon 
thing for the hunters to find the projecting end of their 
ladder stuck full of arrows, shot into it by the Indians, du- 
ring the night. As a general rule the Indians were justly 
dealt with by the early settlers of Huntington, and in case 
of wrong or injury, had the right and privilege, under the 
" Duke's Laws," of appealing to the Town court for redress, 
free of charge. " All injuries done to the Indians of what 
nature soever shall upon their complaint and proof in any 
court, have speedie redress gratis, against any Christian, 
in as full and ample manner (with reasonable allowance for 
damage) as if the case had been betwixt Christian and 
Christian." Such was a provision of the " Duke's Laws." 
The original*, settlement of the Town was located on the 
shores of the Harbor, and in the valley that now comprises 
the eastern part of the village. That was the original vil- 
lage of Huntington, and continued to be its chief business 
portion for over 100 years thereafter. 

The head of the Harbor extended up much farther to the 
south, than at the present time. Two centuries ago, the 
water turned a mill-wheel, through a dam located as far 
south of the present Mill Pond, as the bridge near Stephen 
K. Gould's residence. The land to the north of the pres- 
ent village, and between it and the Harbor, has by the ac- 
tion of the elements, and the washing of rains and floods 
upon the surrounding hill-sides, been filled in, during two 
centuries, changing the outline of the Harbor, and forming 
dry soil, as the waters have receded. 

The country abomided with wild fowl, wild turkeys, foxes, 
rabbits, wolves, wild cats, swans and pelicans, partridge, 
quail, plover and woodcock, and other small game ; deer 
were also abundant ; and the Harbor and Bay furnished 
quantities of fish of various kinds. Oysters and clams ex- 
isted and grew naturally along the shores and in the Bay 



15 
and Harbor, and the first settlers obtained their principal 
sustenance by hunting the game and catching the fish. 

The eai'liest history of Long Island ever written, by Dan- 
iel Denton, of Hempstead, in 1G70, states, " for wild beasts 
there is Deer, Wolves, Bear, Foxes, Raccoons, Otters, Mus- 
quashes and Skunks, Wild fowl there is a great store of, as 
Turkeys, Heath-hens, Quails, Partridges, Pigeons, Cranes, 
Geese of several sorts. Brants, Widgeons, Teal and divers 
others. Upon the south side of Long Island, in the Win- 
ter, lie store of Whales and Grampixsses, * * * also an 
innumerable multitude of Seals." 

The name of Hunting Town or Huntington was in all 
probability given to the settlement, by its early founders, 
by reason of the abundance of game of all kinds in and 
about theii- purchase. It is thought however by some, that 
it was named from Huntingdon, England, the birth-place 
of Oliver Cromwell, who was very popular with the Puritans 
of the New World. There is nothing in our records to 
show the authentic origin of the name given to the settle- 
ment, but I am inclined to think the former is the correct 
origin. 

It is, a mistaken notion to suppose that this country was 
a " howling wilderness " in 1653, covered with dense forests. 
On the contrary, although there was some timber, the 
woods were so thin and sparse, that they fm'nished good 
grazing ground for stock. The j)ine plains to the south 
were not then covered with " scrub-oaks." The woods had 
been kept clear by the Indians, prior to the settlement, by 
their custom of burning them over every year. The set- 
tlers therefore found considerable open or cleared land on 
their arrival, and they enclosed large tracts by fences for 
planting, and afterwards fenced the town plot for common 
pasturage of their stock, and to guard them from depreda- 
tions of wild beasts and Indians, and particularly from the 
large number of ravenous dogs with which Huntington even 
at that early day was cursed. The Indians caught young 
wolves, tamed and used them as dogs, and from their fond- 



16 

ness for destroying stock, they became a source of great an- 
noyance to the early settlers. 

The families who foimded Huntington made a social con- 
tract with each other to be ruled by such regulations and 
laws as a majority of them should decree ; to maintain the 
authority of their chosen magistrates, and officers, in exe- 
cuting the laws of their little community. The records 
show that some of them were well educated, for the times, 
and had a correct understanding of the common law of 
England. 

They were chiefly Independents, who had left England 
during the stormy and bloody reign of Charles I., being 
unable conscientiously to adopt the Constitution of the 
Church of England ; too manly to submit to the tyranny 
and persecutions of the High Commissioned Coiu't, and the 
Star Chamber of that miserable monarch who afterwards 
lost his head. 

They early secured the services of a minister. Rev. Wil- 
liam Leverich, who settled here about 1658, and remained 
until 1669, when he removed to Newtown. Huntington 
gave her first minister to Newtown in 1669, and Newtown 
handsomely returned the compliment two centuries later, 
in sending to Huntington one of her talented young sons. 
Rev. Wm. W. Knox, to dwell and labor among our people. 
[Applause.] 

The early houses of the Fathers of the Town were gene- 
rally of good size, but were seldom thoroughly finished, and 
the upper rooms, of course, were cold and comfortless. 
The houses were generally square or oblong, heavy build- 
ings, with stone chimneys that occupied a large space in 
the centre. The posts and rafters were of great size and 
solidity, and in the rooms, heavy beams stood out from the 
ceiling overhead, and projected like a low narrow bench 
around the sides. The floors were made of stout plank, 
with a trap door leading to the cellar. A line of shelves in 
the kitchen, called the dresser, performing the office of side- 
table and closet, often displayed a superb row of burnished 



17 
pewter. The best apartment was used as a sleeping room ; 
and even the kitchen was generally fiuTiished with a bed. 
The ceilings were low, and the fire-place, running deep into 
the chimney, gaped like an open cavern. But when the 
heaped up logs presented a front of glowing coals, and 
rushing flame, such a fountain of warmth cheered the heart, 
in winter, and promoted social festivity. The fire places 
were often eight feet wide and two or three feet deep. The 
kitchen was the principal sitting-room for the family. — 
Blocks in the chimney corner were used for childi-en's seats ; 
a tin candlestick, with a long back, was suspended on a nail 
over the mantel, and the rude walls were adorned with 
crooknecks, strips of bacon and venison, immense lobster 
claws, raccoon and fox skins, and other trophies of the chase. 

The friends, relatives and acquaintances of the first set- 
tlers followed after them, and the settlement rapidly in- 
creased in wealth and population. In 1663 the total esti- 
mated valuation of taxable property in Huntington, was 
£409 7s. 6d. In 1666, there were 57 freeholders and heads 
of families in the TowTi, which in 1684, was increased to 84 
on the list of taxpayers.* 

Being at first far removed from Royal power, they estab- 



*The foUowiuff named persons were inhabitants and landowners of 



the Town in 1GG6 : 
Content Titus, 
Samuel Wood, 
liichard Brush, 
Thomas Siiidmore, 
George Baldwin, 
Samuel Titus, 
John Green, 
Edward Harnett, 
Thomas Whitson, 
John Jones. 
John Adams, 
Thomas Scudamore, 
John Todd, 
Jonas Houldsworth, 
Joseph Cory, 
John Mathews, 
Timothy Coukling,"^ 
Eleazer Lereuch, 
John French, 



Edward Tredwell, 
Richard Williams, 
Nathaniel Foster, 
John Coukling, 
Isaac Platt,^ 
Jonathan Porter, 
Samuel Wheeler, 
Jonas Wood, Jr.,- 
Thomas Powell. 
John Ketcham, 
Jonathan Scudder, 
John Mathews, 
Richard Darling, 
James Chichester. 
Thomas Brush, 
Caleb Wood, 
Jonas Wood, 
Thos. Wickes, 
William Ludlam, 



Joseph Bayly, 
Jonas Rogers, 
\\^illiam Smith, 
Mark Meggs, 
Robert Cranfield, 
Thomas Benedict, 
Rev. Wm. Lererich, 
Henry Soper, 
John Strickling, 
Caleb Leverich, 
Abial Titus, 
John Titus, 
Robert Williams, 
Epenetus Plait, 
John Westcote, 
Benjamin Jones, 
Stephen Jarvis, 
Robert Seely, 
Gabriel Lynch. 



18 

lished here a pui'e Democracy. All questions were deter- 
mined by the voice of the majority of the people assembled 
in Town Meeting, from which there was no apj^eal. The 
vox 2)02ndi was the vox Del. 

The men who were able to bear arms were enlisted in 
companies under officers chosen by themselves, and " train- 
ing day " was an early institution of Huntington. 

Laws were made, requiring every man to provide himself 
with arms and ammunition for defense of the settlement — 
for the division of lands — enclosing of fields — regulation of 
highways and watering places — for the destruction of wild 
beasts — collection of taxes — establishment and support of 
a school — for the prevention and punishment of crime — the 
preservation of good morals — the supjDort of a minister. 

Mechanics were invited and induced to locate in the Town 
by gifts of land and promise of support, and one Ananias 
Carle, of Hempstead, was induced to settle in Huntington, 
about two centuries ago, by a gift of a large farm at Dick's 
Hills, as he was a military man, and tlie people needed an 
officer to command their local militia and trained bands ef- 
ficiently for protection against the Dutch and Indians. He 
was the common ancestor of the various branches of the 
Carll family now residing in this Town.* 

*Ananias Carle had a son Ananias, who married a Piatt, and had 
children, named Piatt, Timothy and Jesse. Piatt Carll had a son Ja- 
cob S., who died in 1793, aged twenty-nine years, leaving a son Gil- 
bert Carll, now a venerable citizen of the Town, of the age of ninety- 
one years, residing at Dix Hills on the farm owned by his grandfather 
Piatt Carll, who bequeathed and devised it to him, upon his death. It 
IS the old Carll homestead. Timothj Carll, son of Ananias, was a 
Captain in the Militia. He had a cousm Major Timothy Carll, who 
owned and lived on the farm now belonging to J. T. Whipple, Esq., at 
Dix Hills. Capt. Timothy Carll, who died in 1805, aged teventy-one 
years, had sons, Phineas and Lemuel Carll. Phineas had a son David, 
an influential citizen of the Town, a strong " Democrat" in politics, 
known m his day and generation by the people of the town as " King 
David." He was the father of David and George Carll, of Dix Hills, 
and of Ell)ert Carll, of Babylon. Lemuel Carll, son of Capt. Timothy, 
had a scni Timotliy, who lived at West Hills, and was a Magistrate of 
the I'own for many years. He had a son, Lemuel Carll, who now re- 
sides at West Hills, on the farm formerly occupied by his father. The 
descendants of Jesse Carll were Major Israel Carll and Eliphalet Carll, 
and among their posterity now living in the Town, are Jesse and Israel 
Carll, of Northport, and Edward Carll, of Huntington. 



19 
Our ancestors here were very strict in their observance 
of the Sabbath, and punished any inhabitant for desecrating 
the day. They came from a colony where labor and dress 
were regulated by law. The laws of the Plymouth Colony 
were very strict. They had a law that ladies di'esses should 
be made so long as to cover their shoe-buckles. They pro- 
hibited short sleeves, and ordered the sleeves to be length- 
ened to cover the arms to the wrist. They forbid by law, 
immoderate great breeches, knots of ribbon, broad shoulder 
bands, silk roses, double ruffs and cuffs. Even as late as 
1653, one John Fairbanks had been solemnly tried for wear- 
ing great boots. He probably showed, to the satisfaction 
of the Coiu't, that he was afflicted with corns, and couldn't 
wear small ones, as the record states he w'as acquitted. 
[Laughter.] But years soon changed all this. Splendor 
and luxury co-existed with humility. 

The women at the close of the seventeenth, and even of 
the eighteenth century, carried heated stones or bricks in 
their muffs, and the men put their feet into fur bags or 
moccasins at church, with which many of the seats were 
provided. At a later date foot stoves were used. Swords 
w^ere customarily worn when in full dress by persons both 
in a civil and military capacity. Hats were made with 
broad brims and steeple crowns. The coats were made 
with a long, straight body, falling below the knees, with no 
collar, or a very low one, so that the stock or neckcloth, of 
spotless linen, fastened behind with a silver buckle, was 
fully displayed. Red woolen stockings were much admired. 
SiTch wr.s the cuf^tcm at the commencement of 1700. 

Some sixty years later, a fashionable lady, dying, left 
clothing whose inventory showed that she had gowns of 
braw duroy, striped stuff, plaid stuff, black silk crape, cali- 
co, and blue camlet ; a scarlet cloak, a blue cloak, satin flow- 
ered mantle, and furbelow scarf ; a w^oolen petticoat with 
calico border ; a camlet riding hood, a long silk hood, vel- 
vet hood, white hood trimmed wdth lace, a silk bonnet, and 
nineteen caps ; sixteen handkerchiefs, a muslin laced apron. 



20 

fom-teen aprons in all ; a silken girdle, a blue girdle, etc. 
A gold necklace ; death's head gold ring, plain gold ring, 
set of gold sleeve buttons, gold locket, silver hair peg, sil- 
ver cloak clasps, etc. 

A full dress for a gentleman was mostly made of silk, 
with gold and silver trimming of lace, the waistcoat often 
richly embroidered. Ladies wore trails to their gowns, of- 
ten quite long, and when they walked out, they threw them 
over their right arm. The feet displayed a silk stocking, 
sharp-toed slippers, often made of embroidered satin, with 
a high heel. In fine, they seem to have had all the flum- 
mery of 1876, except the modern " pull-back " of our " go 
ahead " generation. [Laughter.] 

To illustrate the manner of the early settlers, in transact- 
ing affairs, I can perhaps recall no incident of a more novel 
character than the invitation or " call " of the people to Rev. 
Eliphalet Jones to become their Pastor, after their first 
minister. Rev. William Leverich, had left and removed to 
Newtown. 

At a Town Meeting held January 16, 1676 — just two 
hundred years ago — it was ordered by a genei'al vote of 
the Town, that Goodman Conklin, Isaac Piatt, and Jonas 
Wood, Sen., should in the "fcowne's behalf seriously give 
Mr. Jones an invitation, and fully to manifest their desire 
for his continuing to expound the word of God, and what 
more is due in the ministerial office amongst us of Hun- 
tington, and what farther may be requisite for the encour- 
agement to the aforesaid end." 

The committee performed their duties, but Mr. Jones 
did not at once accept the " calh" He desired to be satis- 
fied of his popularity, and he selected a training day (June 
10th, 1677) for the purpose.* 



"The Militiii of the Provinco of N«w York, under "Richard, Earl of 
Hclleiuoiit, in 1700, was composed of three thousand one hundred and 
eifrhly-two nicu, of which Sutfolk County lurui>-hed a regiment of six 
liundrcd uud fourteen men, the largest in the Province, except New 
York, ou Manhattan Tshiud, which had a regiment of six hundred and 
oighty-four men. Sutlolk County was then one of the leading and 
most important portions of the Province. The field officers of the Suf- 



21 
The company of brave soldiers, the bone and sinew of 
the young Town, were out on parade, near the Church, 
which had been built in 16G5, on the lleeting House Brook, 
a stream of pure clear water that has flowed for ages from 
the hill-side to the Harbor (and now known as Prime's 
Brook.) They were under command of Capt. Joseph Bay- 
lys, who was also Recorder of the Town, (and to whom we 
are indebted for recording this incident in the Town Re- 
cords.) Mr. Jones " desired to have the company di'awn 
up in order, which was done." " Mr. Jones then spake to 
the company after this manner, that whereas the Provi- 
dence of God had brought him amongst us, in order to do 
the work of the ministry, for which he desired that he might 
see their willingness." At this point, Capt. Baylys, observ- 
ing that Mr. Jon^s spoke so low that the whole company 
could not hear him, commanded silence. Having a strong- 
er voice, he made a speech himself, which is given in the 
record as follows : " Fellow Soulders ! seeing it hath 
pleased ye Lord to send Mr. Jones amongst us, you may 
doo well to manifest your desires for his continuance 
amongst us, and his officiating in ye work of ye Ministree, 
by your usuall signs of houlding up your hands." 

We are further informed, " ye whole company held up all 
their hands, but only one man held uj^ his hand to ye con- 
trary." There was one contrary man in Huntington in 
1677! [Laughter.] 

The vote of the " Military "" settled • the lousiness ; the 
Rev. Eliphalet Jones accepted the " call," and remained in 
Huntington for fifty-four years, when he died, at the ripe 
old age of ninety-one years. So that, not only in their cIa-^- 
il, but also in their religious affairs, the Fathers of Hun- 
tington observed the right of the people to rule and govern 



folk County Regiment, at this time, were Colonel Isaae Araold, Lieut. 
Col. Henry Pievsou, Major Matbew Howell. There was one foot corn- 
pan}' m Huntington ; one in Brookhaven ; two in Easthamptou ; three 
in Southampton and Southold, respectively, making ten companies m 
all. The commissioned officers of " ye to wne of Huntington " were 
Capt. Thos. Wieks, Fn-st Lieut. Jon Woods, Second Lieut. Epenetus 
Piatt. 



22 

themselves. They were imbued, at that early day, with the 
spirit of civil and religious liberty ; they put in practice in 
their own Town g-oveniment, the fundamental j^rinciples, 
that afterwards created a war and founded a Nation. The 
people were entitled to a share in legislation ; their prop- 
erty could not be taken from them without their consent. 
They were the keepers of their own conscience in religious 
matters. For the safe and unmolested enjoyment of these 
blessings, they had forsaken civilization and wedded the 
wilderness ; had torn the ties which bound them to their 
native soil of England ; had encountered the dangers of the 
deep, and had submitted to the hazards and privations of 
an unknawn country. [Applause.] 

In 1664, eleven years after the first settlement of Hun- 
tington, New Netherland was surrendered to Great Britain 
by the Dutch, and the whole of Long Island became subject 
to the Duke of York. 

Eichard Nicolls, the Colonial Governor, convened a meet- 
ing of two Deputies from every town on Long Island, at 
Hempstead, on the 1st of March, 1665. The Deputies from 
the Town of Huntington were Jonas Wood and John 
Ketcham. The Deputies signed a very fulsome address to 
the Duke of York, pledging loyalty as his faithful subjects, 
which did not meet with the approval of their constituents, 
and on their return to their homes, they were handled by 
the people " without gloves," and insulted in various ways. 
The " Duke's Laws " were enacted and put in force at this 
meeting. They made no provision for a General Assembly 
of the representatives of the people — gave the Governor un- 
limited power. He was Commander in Chief ; he appoint- 
ed all public officers, and with the advice of a council, had 
the exclusive power of legislation. He was in fact made a 
king by proxy. The people had no voice in the Govern- 
ment. The spirit of rebellion and independence broke out 
among the people of Huntingtcm. They remonstrated and 
protested against this arbitrary system, so repugnant to 
their ideas of just government ; and when the Governor 



23 
levied a tax ui^on them to pay for repairs to the Fort at 
New York, without their consent, they became alarmed at 
the threatened danger to their rights, at the encroachment 
uj)on their lawful privileges, and refiised to comply with the 
Governor's order, "because," they said, "they were deprived 
of the liberties of Englishmen." Their remonstrance, 
j>rotest and refusal, was thrown in the flames, by Gov. Love- 
lace, as "scandalous, illegal and seditious." 

In April, 1681, Sir Edmund Andros, Governor, sixmmoned 
Isaac Piatt,* Epenetus Piatt, Samuel Titus, Jonas Wood and 

*Isaac PLitt and Epenetus Piatt were brothers and among the first 
settlers of Huntino-ton. The.7 were the sons of Richard Piatt, who 
came from Hertfordshire, England, and settled at 'New Haven, Conn., 
in 1638. The following year he removed to Milford, Conn., where he 
lived until his death in the Fall of 1684. He was the common an- 
cestor of all the Platts in this country. Both Isaac and Epenetus (two 
of his sons) were prominently iudentified with the early history of 
Huntington, aud both were Patentees of the Town. A very interesc- 
ing history of the descendants of Epenetu-: Piatt may be foimdin Vol. 
II. of Thompson's History of Long Island, pages 4:72, et seg. Isaac 
Piatt died July 31, 1691, leaving children as follows : Elizabeth, 
born Sept. 1.5, 1665 ; Joua-J, born August 10, 1667; John, born 
June 29, 1669 ; Mary, born Ocr 26, 167-4 ; Joseph, bom Sept 8, 
1677, aud Jacob, born Sepi. 29, 1682. Jonas Piatt, son of Isaac, 
had four son-;, Obadiah, Timothy, Jesse aud Isaac (2d). The first two 
went over and settled at Fairfield, Conn. Jesse and Isaac (2d) re- 
mained at Huntington. Jesse, son of Jonas Piatt, had three children, 
Jesse (2d), Isaac (3d) and Zophar. Isaac Piatt (3d), son of Jesse 
(3d), died in 1772, and left children; Elizabeth, Marv, Sarah, Oba- 
diah, Jesse (3d) and Isaac (Ith). Cbadiah Piatt, son of Isaac Piatt 
(3d), lived in Revolutionary days and afterwards upon his farm at 
West Hills, now belonging to the McKav estate. His brother, Isaac 
Piatt (4th), married Eunice Piatt of Connecticut, who died in Hun- 
tington in 1862 at the age of ninety-seven years, leaving uo children. 
She was a descendant of Obadiah Piatt, of Fairfield, Conn. Obadinh, 
son of Isaac Piatt (2d), left children : Elkanah, born Sept. 12, 1770; 
Philetus, bora April 7, 1774; Daniel, born June 16, 1776; Esther, 
bom 1772; Rebecca, born 1778; Phebe. born 1780, and Sarah, 
boru 1783. Jesse Piatt (3d), son of Isaac (3d), had children : Lewis, 
David, Ira, Jesse (4th), Ansel, Sarah, Isaac (5th) and Joel. 

Elkauah Piatt, son of Obadiah Piatt, of Huntington, married 
"Dency" Wood, daughter of Jeremiah Wood, in 1795, and had 
children: Elizabeth, born Feb. 19, 1796; George W., (now living 
m Xew York City) boru Aug. 2, 1798 ; David, bom Mav 4, 1801 ; 
Brewster W. and Daniel, (twins) born July 1, 1804 ; "jSTathan C., 
(Chamberlain of New York Gitv and now deceased) bora Dec. 20, 
1806 ; Deborah W., bom Feb. 4, 1809, and Hannah C. born Feb. 2, 
1812. The cliildren of David Piatt, dec'd, sou of Elkanah, now re- 
side in the village of Huntington. Isaac Piatt (5th), son of Jesse 
(3d), married Sarah Mathews, of Huntington, and afterwards Eliza- 



2i 

Thos. Wicks, inhabitants of Hiuitington, to New York, and 
caused them to be imprisoned without trial, for having atten- 
ded a meeting of delegates of the several Towns for the pui-- 
pose of devising a method to procure a redi-ess of grievances 
against his arbitrary rule. They were afterwards released, 
and the Town of Huntington, at Town Meeting, voted them 
a sum of money, to pay their expenses and damages, as they 
had suffered in the Town's behalf. These were the first 
exhibitions of a rebellious spirit, in this Town, against the 
pernicious attempt to enforce " Taxation without Represen- 
tation. " The people of Huntington, a hundred years be- 
fore this nation declared its independence, revolted and re- 



beth Doty, of Cold Spring Harbor. He had iseveral children by his 
last wife, whose descendants reside in the western part of the State of 
JSTew York. Joel Piatt, son of Jesse (3d), married Miss Suydam, of 
Ceuterport. Jesse Piatt (4th), son of Jesse (3d), married and settled 
in New Jersey. Ansel Piatt, sou of Jesse (3d), married Miss Maria 
McChesney, of New York City. Sarah Piatt, daucchter of Jesse (3d), 
was a very beautiful lady and had three husbands : Thomas Steele, 
John Scudder, of Yeruon Yalley, and Joshua B. Smith. 

Philetus Piatt, son of Obadiah, married Content Sammis, of Hun- 
tinarton, and had children V Obadiah, Zophar, Stephen, Oliver, Watts, 
Polly, Amelia, Sarah, gloalie and Nancy. 

Daniel Piatt, son of Obadiah, married Miss Smith, of New York City, 
and had children, whose names are not known. 

Esther Piatt, daughter of Obadiah, marrisd Stephen Fleet, of Hun- 
tinffton, and had children : Piatt, Ruth, and Mary Esther Fleet. 

Rebfscca Piatt, daughter of Obadiah, married a Mr. Duryea, and had 
one son, John Duryea ; she then manned Jonas Sammis, of West 
Neck, and had four children by her second marriage, viz.: Nelson Sam- 
mis, (now living in Huntington); Daniel P. Sammis, of New York 
City ; Mary Sammis, dec'd, and Sarah Sammis, now Sarah Denton, 
wife of Jonah Denton, of I,;loyd's Neck. 

Phebe Piatt, daughter of Obadiah, married Nathaniel Chichester, of 
West Hills, and had the following children : Nathaniel, Eliphalet, 
Piatt and Mary Ann Chichester. 

Sarah Piatt, daughter of Obadiah, manned Jesse Sogers, of Hunting- 
ton, and had one daughter, Elizabeth Rogers. 

Obadiah, the son of Jonas Piatt, who with his brother Timothy, left 
Huntington and settled in Fairfield, Conn., had numerous descendants. 
He had sons: Jarvis, Jesse, Obadiah and Smith, and daughters : Sarah 
(died in infancy), Eunice, Polly and Abby. 

Jarvis Piatt married Annie Nichols, of Newtown, Fairfield Co., 
Conn., and moved from there to Black Lake, near Ogdensburgh, N. Y., 
on the St. Lawrence river, lie had children Sarah. Charlotte and other 
daughters, and Philo, Smith and David. Smith died young. Philo 
setlled m Payetteville, Virginia. David had two children, Philo T. 
and Alesia. 

Jesse Piatt, of Conn , married Hannah Raymond, of Norwalk, settled 
at Weston, Fairfield, Co., and left one child, Clarissa Piatt, who after- 



25 

belled against the enforceiaeut of that unrighteous doc- 
trine ; they inscribed upon their banners, " No Taxation 
without Representation. " 

A Century later, the United Colonies of America, rai^ed 
the same standard in armed rebellion, and swept every ves- 
tige of usurped authority from the length and breadth of 
the land. [Ajjplause.] To the part Huntington sufiered 
and endured, in that memorable and bloody struggle for 
National Independence, I now invite your attention. 

The people of Huntington, at the beginning of hostilities 
with Great Britain, entered into the spirit of the great con- 
flict with j)atriotic ardor. They called a general Town 
Meeting which was held on the tw^enty-first day of June, 
1774, and was presided over by Israel Wood, then Presi 
dent of the Board of Trustees of the Town. The resolu- 
tions pissei at that meeting, miy be termed Huntington's 



wards married Judge Muusou, of Daubury, who«e daughter, Caroline 
A. Munson, dec'd, was the wife of Isaae A. Dusenberry, of Port Chester. 

Smith Piatt, of Conn., settled at Galway, 8 miles from Ballstou, 
N. Y. ; married Auuie Waiieman, of Greenfield, Conn., and had chil- 
dren : Polly, Abby, Eliza, \7al<eman, Jarvxs and Obadiah II. Piatt. 
Wakeaian and JarVis, (now dee'd ) were ministers ;. Obadiah H. a Lawyer, 
and recently iu Government service, at Washington. 

Obadiah JPlatt (3d) of ('oun., married Elizabeth Hawley, of Xew- 
town, and settled at Ogdensburgh, N. Y., and had children : Eunice, 
Mary, Elizabeth, Catharine, vSaiuuel, Jesse, Jarvis, Obadiah, Smith and 
David M. 

Abbv Piatt, daughter of Obadiah, of Conn., married Peter Williams, 
of Weston, C{mn„'aud settled in Ballston, Js''. Y., had chiUlren : Smith, 
Jonathan , Moses, Phxtt, Abby, Eunice and Clarissa. 

Polly Piatt, daughter of OJ^adiah, of Conn., married Denny Hull, 
of Greens Farms. Conn., and had four children, Isaac P., Euuice. Denny 
and Polly. Obadiah Piatt (2d) of Conn., lived at Ridgefield, and had 
children Obadiah, David. Amos, Jouas, Annie and Sarah. David, 
Amos and Jonas all died during the Revolution. Amos and Jonas 
were taken prisoners by the BrTtish Army and confined iu the old " Su- 
gar House " prison, where both died. David left a farm of 200 acres 
lit Ridgefield, and one daughter and four sous, who all died iu hi^s than 
a year after their fathers death. His widow ma-ried a lawyer, Mr. 
Edwards. 

The descendaats of Obadiah and Timothy Piatt are now scattered 
over the States of New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Minnesota, Geor- 
gia and Connecticut. A direct descendant of Obadiah, of Conn., Hon. 
Johnson Toucey Piatt, is now a leading citizen of New Haven, and 
oue of the Professors of the Yale Law School. 



36 

DECLARATION OF IXDEPEXDEXCE. 

1st. That every freeman's property is absolutely his own, 
and no man has a right to take it fr-om him withoiit his 
consent, expressed either by himself or his representative. 

2d, That therefore all taxes and duties imposed on his 
Majesty's subjects in the American colonies by the authority 
of Parliament, are wholly imconstitutional, and a plain vio- 
lation of the most essential rights of British subjects. 

3d, That the Act of Parliament lately passed for shutting 
uj) the Port of Boston, or any other means or device, under 
color of law, to compel them or any other of his Majesty's 
American subjects, to submit to Parliamentary taxations, 
are subversive of their just and constitutional liberty. 

4th, That we are of opinion that our brethren of Boston 
are now suffering in the common cause of British America. 

5th, That therefore it is the indispensable duty of all the 
colonies to unite in some effectual measures for the repeal 
of said Act, and every other Act of Parliament whereby 
they are taxed for raising a revenue. 

6th, That it is the opiliion of this meeting that the most 
effectual means for obtaining a sjieedy repeal of said Acts, 
will be to break off all commercial intercourse with Great 
Biitain, Ireland, and the English West India Colonies. 

7th, And ire hereby declare ourselves ready to enter into 
these, or such other measures, as shall be agreed upon by 
a yeneral Congress of all the (Jolonies ; and we recommend 
to the General Congress, to take such measures as shall be 
most effectual, to prevent such goods as are at present in 
America from being raised to an extravagant price. 

And lastly, we appoint Col. Piatt Conklin, John Sloss 
Hobart. Escj.. and Thos. "NVickf, a committee for this Town, 
to act in conjunction Avith the committees of the other 
Towns in the County, to correspond with the committee of 
New York.* 



* ,\I(iy '_'. 1 77."), lit 11 siiMicral Town Mfctiuir. held in HimtineUm, it 
wii'^ viili'd Mint tlicrc shun 111 be cifihty uicu clioscu ti) excriiise and be 
rciiih t(i iniivch. 



The Committees of correspondence for the Comity of 
Suffolk met at the County Hall on November 15, 1774, and 
it Avas then and there recommended to the several Towns 
to set forward a subscription for the employment and relief 
of the distressed poor in Boston, and to procure a vessel to 
receive and carry donations to Boston. The proceedings 
of the Continental Congress, which had met at Philadelphia, 
September 4, 1774, were fully approved. 

A paper of the General Association of Patriots, originat- 
ed by the first Continental Congress, was almost unani- 
mously signed in Suffolk County, showing the ardent sym- 
pathy of the inhabitants with the patriot cause. Only two 
hundred and thirty-six peo2:)le in the whole County of Suf- 
folk refused to sign. 

Under the recommendation and suggestion of the Pro- 
vincial Congress of May 22, 1775, County and Town Com- 
mittees were appointed to aid the cause. 

Hon. John Sloss Hobart,* of Hiuitington, was one of the 
deputies to this Congress. 

•Jesse Bruslv John Squirds, Stei)hen Ketcham, Thomas 
Wick's, Timothy Ketcham, Henry Scudder^ Dr. Gilbert Pot- 
ter, Thos. BFush, jr., Israel Wood, Stepnen Kelsey, and 
Ebenezer Piatt, were appointed the Committee for the 
Town of Huntine'ton. 



. * Hon. John Sloss Hobavt, sou of Rev. Xoah, (grandson of Rev. N^e- 
bemiah, and great graadsou of Rev., Peter Hobart of Hingbiim, Mass.,) 
was born at Fairfield, Conn., where his father was pastor, in 1735; 
he graduated at Yale College in 1767, and although not bred a law- 
yer, was a man of sound eilucation and excellent understaudiug. His 
deportment was grave, and his countenauce austere : yet he was a 
warm-hearted man. and universally respected for his good sense, his 
integrity, his pure moral character, and patriotic devotion to the best 
interest's of his country. He posse.-sed the entire con^;deuce of the 
public councils of the 8tate, and on all fitting occasions this confidence 
was largely and freely manifested. He was appointed to tlie bench of 
the Supreme Court of this State in 1777, and continued in the office 
tor about twenty years, and had for his associates injudicial life. Chief 
.fustice RichardMorris and'Robert Yates, men highly distinguished for 
legal acumen and solid, as well as varied learning. We have the high 
authority of Chancellor Kent for Sixying, that he was a faithful, dili- 
gent and discerning judge, during the time he remained upon the bench. 
He was selected as a member, from this State, of n partial and prelimi- 
nary convention that met at Aunap:)lis m Septeuiber, 1 780, and was 



28 

This ToT\B set to work iu earnest to prepare for the com- 
ing struggle. A movement was started to raise troops for 
the support of the RebelHon. Capt. Timothy Carll, Phin- 
eas Fanning,! and David Mulford, Esq., were apjDointed 
Muster Masters of the Troops to be raised in Suftblk Coun- 
ty. Two regiments of Mihtia were to be organized, one in 
the eastern, and the other in the Avestein part of the Coun- 
ty, to join the Continental Army. Congress in August, 
1775, sent one hundred paunds of powder to Ebenezer 
Piatt, I for the use of the western Militia, and two hun- 
dred pounds to the order of Ezra L'Hommedieu and John 
Foster for the eastern troops. The first five companies 
wei'e raised in the Town, on or about September 11, 1775, 

and their officers were : 
fL 
1, Capt. JohnAVickes ; 1st Lieut. Epeuetus Conklin ; 2d 
J^ . 

Lieut. Jonah ^^ ood : Ensign. Ebenezer Prime "Wood. 



afterwards elected by the citizens of N"ew York a member of the State 
Conventiou in 1788, which ratified the Constitution of the United 
States. When he retired from the Supreme Com-t in 1798, he was 
chosen bj^ the Legislature of this State a Senator in Congress. In 
1793 tie received the honorary degree of LL. D. at the Anniversary 
Commencement of Yale College, New Haven. His friend, the late 
Hon. Egbert Benson, caused a plain marble slab to be affixel in tbe 
wall of the chamber of ttie Suprema Court in the City Hall of the city 
of New York, to the memory of Judge Hobart, with tbe following in- 
scription upon it, which, though bordering on that quaint and sen- 
tentious style so peculiar to .Judge Benson, contains a just and higli 
eulogy on the distinguished virtues of the decea-;ed : 

"John Sloss Hobart was born at Fairfield, Connecticut. His father 
was a minister of that place. He was appointed a judge of the Su- 
preme Court in 1777, and left it in 1798, having attained sixty years 
of age. The same year he was appointed a judge of the United States 
District Court for New York, and held it till hisdeath in 1805. As a 
ina/i, firm — as a citizen, zealous— as a, judge, distinguished — as a Chris- 
tian, sincere. This tablet is erected to his memory by one to whom he 
was as a friend — close as a brother." 

t Phineas Fanning was an ancestor of the mother of Thomas Young, 
of this village, and lived at Southold. 

X Judge Ebenezer Piatt was a son of Dr. Zophar Piatt, and was born 
in Huntington, 1754. He received a good common education, and 
succeeded his father in mercantile business m his native place till after 
his parents' death. He married Abigal, daughter of Joseph Lewis, 
who was born 1761, and died May 19, 1828. He was elected to the 
Assembly in 1784 and '5. and iu 1794 wa? appointed first Judge of 
Suffolk Countv, which he retained till 1799, when he removed to the 
city of New York. Having, by some reverses of fortune, lost the most 
01 his property, he sought for and obtained a situation in the New York 



fl 29 

2, Cajit. Jesse Brush ; 1st Lieut. Epenebis Conkling ; 2d 
Lieut. Phillip Coiiklin ; Ensign, Joseph Titus. 

3, Capt. Timothy Carll ; 1st Lieut. Gilbert Fleet ; 2d 
Lieut. Joel Scudder ; Ensign, Nath. Buffet, jr. 

4, Capt. John Buffet ; 1st Lieut. Isaac Thompson : En- 
sign, Zebulon Keteham. (This company was from the 
south side of the Towti.) 

5, Capt. Piatt Vail ; 1st LieuL Michael Heart ; 2d Lieut. 
Isaac Dennis ; Ensign, Jacob Conklin. (This comj^any was 
raised, and elected their officers at Cow Harbor or North- 
port.) 

A few months later, (April 7, 177G,) another company was 
raised in tlie Town, of which Nathaniel Piatt was Captain, 
Samuel Snluh 1st Lient.. Henry Skudder 2d Lieut., and 
Henry Blatsley, Ensign. ^ 

The officers of the Artillery were : Caj^tain. Wm. Rogers : 
Capt. Lt. John Franks : 1st Lieut. Jeremiah Rogers : 2d 
Lieut. Thos. Baker ; Lt. Fireworker, John Tiithill. 

There were afterwards, some changes made in the officers. 
Col. Josiah Smith, of Brookhaven, was jjlaced in command 
of these companies with others, and was ordered, on the 
8th of August, 1776, to march all his new levies to the 
western part of Nassau Island, within two miles of Gen. 
Greene's encampment, and to put himself under the orders 
of that American Cammander. 

It was not luitil the 22d day of July. 1776. that the free- 
dom and independence of the thii-teen United Colonies, 

Custom House, «-hich he lield so lonji as he was able to discharge its 
duties, when ho retired to private life, and died June 26, 1839, at the 
ajje of 85. Judpe Piatt was a polished gentleman in his manners, af- 
fable, courteous, and withal highly intelligent. He possessed much 
public spirit, and was the friend of every thing which promised to be 
useful to the communiiy ; and like his father he was particularly dis- 
tmguished for kindness "and hospitality, his house being the general re- 
sort of resi)ectable strangers. His removal from the Town was a mat- 
ter of public regret, and his memory is still cherished with affectionate 
regard bv all wbo knew him. He left issue Isaac Watts Piatt, pastor 
of the Presbyterian Church. Bath, Steuben Co., X. Y., where he was 
installed Sept 1. ISol. Ebenezer. cashier of the Leather Manufactu- 
rers Bank, X. Y. ElizaOeth. who married James Rogers, and Rebecca, 
the wife of Edmond Rogers (now deceased) of New York, and a brother 
of James. 



30 

was proclaimed at Huntington. Those were not the days 
of Raih'oads and Telegraphs. News traveled slowly. There 
was on the occasion a Grand Parade of all the Militia and 
Artillery, a salute of thirteen guns, and martial music of 
fifes and drums. The Declaration of Independence, to- 
gether with the resolutions of the Provincial Convention, 
were read, approved and applauded by the animated shouts 
of the assembled people, who were present from all parts 
of the Town. The British Flag was hauled down, and the 
figure of George III Avas ripped off. A Liberty Pole was 
raised. An effigy of King George was fabricated out of 
some coarse material. Its face was blackened, and its head 
adorned with a w^ooden crown, stuck full of Rooster's feath- 
ers. It was then rolled up in a British Flag lined with 
gunpowder, hauled up on a gibbet, exploded and burnt to 
ashes, amid the jeers and groans of the people. (Applause.) 
In the evening, the rejoicing and jubilee continued. The 
eleven members of the Town Committee, with a large num- 
ber of leading inhabitants, gave a banquet, at the Inn, (sit- 
uated where J. Amherst Woodhull now resides) and the 
people were in high spirits, and I am afraid, from the " ab- 
stract and brief chronicle of the time," that some high spirits 
were also in them. (Laughter.) They sang j^atriotic 
songs, made patriotic speeches, and drank thirteen jDatriotic 
toasts. Among the toasts were : " The free and indepen- 
dent States of America ;" " The general Congress ;" " The 
Convention of the thirteen States ;" " The Army and Navy," 
and Dr. Gilbert Potter,* a very ardent rebel, , fLi W liuhud a 



* Dr. Gilbert Potter, was boru m this Town Jan. 8, 172.5. His fa- 
ther, Nathaniel, came from Ehode Island m 1713, but returned there 
m 1734, where he died. He left sons, Gilbert and Zebediah. The 
latter became a sailor and settled finallj on the eastern shoie of Mary- 
land, where he died. His grandson Nathaniel, an eminent physician of 
Baltimore, and Professor in the Maryland University, died Jan. 2, 
1843. J . > 

Gilbert studied medicine with Dr. Jared Elliot of Guilford, Conn, 
(grandson of the apostle Elliot,) and in 1745 engaged as surgeon on 
board a privateer in the French war. On his return here, he married 
Elizabeth, daughter of Nathaniel Williams. In 1756 he was made 
captain of one of the companies from Sutiblk County, and proceeded 
to Ticonderoga. In July, 1758. when the detachment of Col Brad- 



31 
speecli on the occasion, by reading from the Constitutional 
Gazette, the following poetical summary of the rebel cause : 

Budely forced to drink Tea, Massachusetts in anger, 
Spills the Tea on John Bidl ; Jolin lalls on to bang her, 
Massachusetts, enraged, calls her neighbors to aid, 
And give Master John, a severe bastinado. 
how good men of the law : pray, who is in fault, 
Tlie one who began, or resents the assault ? 

[Applaiisc.] 
But gloomy days were at hand. Long Island, where the 
great Colony of New York stretched forth her bony finger 
to feel the pulse of old Ocean, first felt the throb of war 
from across the sea. The British fleet soon appeared in 
sight of our shores. British troops landed to the east of 
Huntington, and carried off cattle and provisions. Dr. Gil- 
bert Potter wrote from Huntington to Gen. Woodhull on 
the 26th of August, 1776, apprising him of the fact, biit be- 
fore the letter reached him at Jamaica, and on the next day, 
the 27th of August, 1776, the disastrous battle of Long Is- 
land at the west end, was fought, and resulted in the defeat 
of the raw and undisciplined American Militia by over- 
whelming niunbers of the veteran army of England. This 
defeat placed the whole of Long Island within the British 
lines, and left its conquered inhabitants entirely in their 
power. 

Gen. Woodliull was so badly wounded, after he had given 



street was on its way to Frontenac, the troops bscaaie sickly, ami a 
hospital boiiiff established at Scheuecta:iy, the medical departmeat was 
assigned to Dr. Potter. 

He returned home at the end of the second campaign and renewed 
his practice, which he continued till 1770, when he was appointed 
coiimel of the western regiment of Sufi'oUc militia, by the Proviacial 
'Congress, and was associated ^ith General Woodhull in prole 'ting 
Long Island. After its capture, he retired within tha American lines, 
and was employed in confidential, rather than active service. In 
1783 he returned with his family and pursued his professional busi- 
ness with high success till his death Feb. 14, 1786. 

His wife, born March 9th, 1728, died November 17, 1811. His 
daughter Sarah, born January 8th, 1756, married Captain "William 
Rogers, afterwards lost at sea. His sou isTathauie], born December 
23d, 1761, was several times a representative in the Assembly, and 
many years a judge of the County. He died in the eightieth year of 
his age, unmarried, November 24th, 1841. 



32 

up his sword in suiTender, near Jamaica, that he died a few 
days thereafter.* Col. Josiah Smith's regiment of Suffolk 
County Militia was badly cut up and demoralized, and some 
of them were taken prisoners. The Colonel gave leave for 
every man to shift for himself in getting their families and 
effects off Long Island. 

Judge Hobart and James Townsend, who had been sent 
by the Provincial Convention as a committee to repair to 
Gen. Woodhull with their advice and assistance, foiuid on 
their arrival in Queens County, that Gen. Woodhull was 
captured and the Militia dispersed. They came at once to 
Huntington and tried to rally the remnants of the Militia 
at this point. They ordered. the Suffolk County forces to ren- 
dezvous here, and sent to Col. Mulford. of Easthampton, to 
come and tike command. Col. Floyd t was at Congress. Lt. 



* The WoodbuU family in Huntinorton are descended from the same 
ancestry as General Xalhaniel WoodhvUl. Eichard, the common an- 
cestor, was born at Thenford, Northamptonshire, England. September 
13, 1620. His wife's n0me was Deborah. He came to America as 
early as 1648, and first appears at Jamaica, L. I. He had children : 
Richard, Nathaniel and Deborah. JSTathaniel died without issue. 
Richard (2d), born Nov. 2d, 1691, lived at Setauket. He married 
Mary Homan and had seven children, amoug them Richard (3d), born 
Oct. 11th, 1 712. He married Margaret Smith, of Smithtown, and had 
four children, among them John >Yoodhull, who married Elizabeth Smith 
and had nine children, among them Jeffrey A. Woodhull. Jeffrey was 
bora at Miller's Place and married Elizabeth Davis and lived at Rocky 
Point for a number of years ; from there he removed to Comae. He 
had three sons and one daughter. Smith Woodhull, second son of Jef- 
frey A., was born at Rocky Point, March 27th, 1797, and removed 
with his parents to Comae, in the Town of Huntington. He married 
Hannah Skidmore. His two sons, ex-Supervisor J. Amherst Woodhull 
and Caleb S. Woodhull, and his daughter, the wife of Jarvis R. Rolph, 
now reside m the village and Town of Huntington. Rev. Nathan 
Woodhull, formerly pastor of the church in Huntiufftou, was a son of 
Rich ard Woodh u 11 ( 3 d ) . 

t Suffolk County enjoys the honor of having taken aa active part in 
the Declaration of ludependeuce. Her representative on that memo- 
rable occasion was William Floyd, a worthy member of the heroic band 
who dared to assert and maintain the principles which have made 
America a nation, William Floyd, born on December 17, 1734, was 
a staunch, devoted, and unflinching Republican from the separation of 
tbe colonies from the mother country down to their Union as a distinct 
and independent confederation. His grandfather settled in Setauket, 
Long Island. 

Wm. Floyd, in 1774, was elected a delegate from rhe State of New 
York to the first Coutinental Congress, " and was one of the most active 
members of that body." Previous to that period he had served as com- 



33 

Col. Gilbert Potter had gone to Connecticut. The IVIilitia 
were without officers. Major Jeffrey Smith had (Aug. 29) 
ordered the four companies of Brookhaven Militia to march 
at once to Piatt Carll's at Dix Hills, in Huntington. When 
they had marched as far as Epenetus Smith's in Smithtown, 
the Militia waited to hear from the Major, who had gone to 
Huntington, to consult with Hobart and Townsend. At 
dusk, the Major returned, and told the IMilitia, that he gave 
up the Island ; they hadn't force enough to cope with the 
enemy, and he advised them to quietly disband and go to 
their homes, whereupon they broke ranks and dispersed. 

The conquest of Long Island by the British was now 
complete. The rejoicing of the people was turned to grief. 
They were at the mercy of their enemies. The Coimty 
committees and Town committees of the patriots were by 
force and fear, compelled to revoke annul, and disavow their 
previous proceedings — to repudiate the authority of the 
Continental Congress, and the inhabitants were compelled 
to take the oath of allegiance and of " good behavior," to 
the crown of Great Britain. 

Martial law alone prevailed. Those who had taken an 
active part in favor of the rebellion, fled to Connecticut, or 
within the American lines ; left their famihes improtected, 
and their property here to be occupied and seized by British 



mander of the Suffolk Countv mUitia. In 1775 he was re-elected to 
the General Congress, and during this period hisfamilv suffered greatly 
from the incursions of the Bntish armv, and were obliged, after the 
Battle of Long Island, in August, 1776, lo take refuge in Connecticut. 
For ^even reans his propertvVas valueless to him— the invaders taking 
possession of his house, live 'stock, &c. This stroke of misfortune had 
no effect on his patriotism, however, and he worked on in the cause of 
freedom and libertv, both in Congress and in the State Legislature. 

Ill health compelled General Floyd to ask Congress for leave of ab- 
sence in April, 1779, and on his return to Xew York, m May, he re- 
sumed his senatorial duties in the State Legislature, and served on 
manv important committees. He continued in pubbc life until 1789, 
and in 1803 removed to a fann of rugged beauty in Mohawk County, 
which he had purchased several years previous. . ;, ., 

He was a delegate to the Convention, in 1801, which revised the 
Constitution of New York State, and subsequently elected a member 
of the State Senate, and a Presidential Elector on several occasions 
serving m the latter capacity untU within a year of his death. He died 
August 4, 1821, in his eighty-seventh year. 



34 

officers or native Loyalists. The Tories wore red rags on 
their hats to distinguish them from the Kebels, and also as 
a badge of safety and protection. The boys and negroes, 
(there were negro slaves in those days) in Hnntington, took 
the hint and wore the red rag of England, for the purpose 
of security from attacks of the British soldiers. Many old 
men, who were unable to get away, and who had no sympa- 
thy with the British, kept a red rag on hand to stick in 
their hats in case of danger, and the material became so 
scarce in Huntington, that the women had to tear their red 
petticoats to pieces, to supply the overwhelming demand ! 
From this fact, those who vv-ore these emblems of submis- 
sion, were called by the more active and warlike patriots, 
the "Petticoat Brigade of 1776." [Laughter'and Applause.] 
The British troops, after the battle of Long Island, swept 
the Island for forage and provisions. They oppressed the 
people and stole their stock and j^roperty. As an opposi- 
tion poet sang at the time : 

In days of yore, the British Troops, 

Have taken warlike Kings in Battle ; 
But now alas ! their valor droops, 

For- they take naught but— harmless cattle ! 

Or as Freneau wrote, in " Gajge's soliloquy :" 

Let others combat in the dusty fleld ; 

Let petty Captains scorn to live or yie!d ; 

I'll send my sliips to neighboring isles where stray 

Unnumbered herds, and steal those herds away. 

I'll strike the women in this Town with awe. 

And make them tremble, at my Martial Law ' 

Huntington was one of the few places selected by them, 
to garrison, guard, fortify, and occupy permanently. It 
was the headquarters of the British foraging parties of Cav- 
alry, who seized and shipped provisions for the British 
Army and Navy. Its capacious Bays rendered it accessible 
at all times by British vessels, which transported the stolen 
property of this Town and County into the British Quar- 
termaster's possession, to feed the British Army. Thou- 
sands of troops were at Huntington in camp and fort and 
houses, during the war. The 17th Regiment Lio-ht Dr a 



35 
goons, 71st Infantry, Tarleton's Legion, The Queen's Ran- 
gers, Col. Hewlett's Provincials, The " Loyal Refugees," 
Jersey Loyal Volunteers, The Hessian Yagers, and the 
Prince of Wales' American Regiment, were at various times 
quartered on the inhabitants of Huntington, and encamped 
in their orchards and fields. 

Among the more prominent British officers, who came to 
Huntington, were Gen. Sir Wm. Erskine, who went from 
Huntington to Southampton ; Gen. Tryon, who went from 
Huntington to Southold ; Brig. Gen. Leland, Brig. Gen. 
DeLancey, Col. Tarleton, who marched from Smithtown, 
through Huntington to Jericho ; Col. Simcoe, of the Queen's 
Rangers, Col. Hewlett (Tory), of Hempstead, Col. Aber- 
crombie, Col. Bruinton, Col. Croger, Col. DeWormb, of the 
Hessian Yagers, Col. Ludlow, at one time in command of 
the Fort at Lloyd's Neck, who forced Jonas Rogers and 
others to go to Nevv' York with their teams after cannon ; 
Col. Upham, Col. DeLancey, Col. Benj. Thompson, Lieut. 
Carr of the 17th Light Dragoons ; Majors Green, Giliillan, 
Campbell, Terpenny, Gwin, Ferguson, and Major Hubbel 
of the " Loyal Refugees ;" Captains Cutler, Cameron, Royle, 
Boam, Ellison, Gore, Stephenson, Woolley, Stewart, Thomas, 
DeSchoenfeldt, of the Anspach Regiment, and numerous 
others. 

The first British Regiment that arrived in Huntington 
was the 17th Light Dragoons, a few days after the battle of 
Long Island. They found no American troops to oppose 
them. The officers stopped at the house of Stephen Ketch- 
am, * (which was the old Hewett mansion, on the site of 
Henry T. Funnell's new house on Main street.) It stood 
on the road. All around it were vacant lots. Mr. Ketcham, 
having been one of the Patriot Town Committee, had left 
Huntington for a time, and the house was in charge of Mrs. 
Ketcham, who had a large family and a number of slaves. 
The officers turned their horses into a lot by the side of 



* Stephen Ketcham was the great-graBdfather of Stephen K. Gould, 
of this village. 



36 

the house, a part of which was a peach orchard. Mrs. 
Keteham at the time had just finished baking in her oven, 
fifteen loaves of bread. She went to the door and request- 
ed one of the officers to turn their horses into another lot, 
as they might destroy the peach trees, which request was 
politely granted. But the officers, seeing the bread, marched 
in the house, and without comment or apology, seized 
and carried off every loaf, leaving the old lady as mad as a 
hornet. [Laughter.] 

Later in the day, when she came to look around for her 
large cooking pot, a very jiecessary article in those days, to 
cook her dinner, she discovered it was missing, and suspect- 
ing the British soldiers had stolen it, she put on her bon- 
net, went out of the door, across the road, and up in the 
fields to the south of the house, where they were encamped. 
Wandering on the outskirts of the camp for some time, she 
at last discovered her cooking pot, hanging over a fire, 
made of fence rails, and containing some savory mess, in 
process of cooking. Watching her opportunity, when no 
soldier was near, and when they were otherwise engaged, 
she turned it upside down, " dumped " the contents into 
the fire, seized it and retreated in good order, without being 
discovered, having successfully accomplished her pru'pose, 
and recovered her property. [Applause.] 

This was the first raid of the British on Avomen and chil- 
dren in Huntington, and victory perched ujjon the banner 
of the brave old lady ! [Laughter.] 

And now, fellow citizens, if I do not weary you, [cries of 
" No, no. Go on,"] I want to have an old fashioned talk 
with you about old times in Huntington. My friend, Mr. 
Scudder, has announced me as a speaker of polished peri- 
ods, but I did not come here to deal out rhetoric noi fine 
sounding phrases. I want to have a plain talk about our 
old Town, and some of the people who lived here One Hun- 
dred years ago. Let us see, if we can get some faint idea 
of how Huntington looked in 1776. It was not thickly in- 
habited, nor was there any compact village in these parts. 



37 
The farm houses were scattered far and wide, on East and 
West Necks, at Cold Spring, Dix Hills, Long Swamp, 
Sweet Hollow, West Hills, Little Cow Harbor, Great Cow 
Harbor and Fresh Pond. There w^as here and there a farm 
house and barn. The principal road led from the east side 
of the Harbor to Piatt Carll's at Dix Hills. None of the 
streets in the western part of the village were opened, ex- 
cej)t the main road leading west to Cold Spring, here by 
the side of this Grove ; the old Hollow Pond road to Long 
Swamp ; the Frog Pond road to West Hills ; the road to 
West Neck and Lloyd's Neck, and the crooked path to the 
west side of the Harbor, now known as Wall street. 

The only houses on Main street, in the western part, 
were the dwellings of Timothy Williams, (who is described 
as a whole-souled, jovial man,) near the present site of Hi- 
ram V. BayHs' residence ; John Lefferts, where the Suffolk 
Hotel now stands ; Stephen Ketcham, the old Hewett house 
now torn doAvn ; John Bennett, where the Himtiugton Ho- 
tel is located, and Solomon Ketcham, where the " Astor 
House " formerly stood, now a vacant lot. These houses 
stood nearly on the road, and the land about them, was en- 
closed by rail fences. With three barns, they comprised 
all the buildings on Main street to the west. 

On Wall street from John Bennett's corner (Hiintington 
House now owned by Casper Ritter) to the west side of the 
Harbor, there were only five houses. Dr. Gilbert Potter's 
dwelling, now occupied by Ebenezer C. Lefferts ; his new 
house on premises where George C. Gardiner now resides ; 
Joseph Sammis' where Theodore Shadb'olt lives ; Capt. 
John Squier's* dwelling on the corner where Isaac Watts 
Roe lives, a part of his present dwelling containing the old 
house ; and John Brush's where John F. Wood occupies, 



* Congress seut Gov. Patrick Sinclair, a British prisoner, to the com- 
mittee of Huntington, to keep, in August, 1775, at an early period of 
the war, before Long Island fell under British rule. He was boarded 
by the committee, while at Huntington, at the house of Capt. John 
Squiers as a prisoner on parole. He had two servants with him. 
Capt. Squiers' bill for his board from Aug. 1775 to March 28, 1776 
was £50, 10s, 7p. 



38 

and belonging to William W. Wood, adjacent to the Mill. 
That locality was then known as "John Brush's Landing." 
He kej^t the Mill. There were also two farm houses in 
" Mutton Hollow " occupied by the Conkling and Sammis 
families. On the West Neck road, there lived Jesse Brush, 
William and John Haviland, Alexander and Jesse Sammis, 
Henry Titus, Joseph Conkling, James Long, Jonas Sammis, 
Augustin Sammis, Jolm Sammis* and his son Nathaniel, 
James Rogers and his son Charles, Ebenezer Gould, and 
others. At Cold Spring, there resided Alexander Rogers, 
Zebulon and Isaac Rogers, John Morgan, Richard and Hen- 
ry Conkling, William James, Zachariah Rogers, Zebulon 
Titus and son, Daniel Hendrickson and his son John, Israel 
and Abiel Titus, Jonas Rogers and his son Jacob, and nume- 
rous others. In and near the village proper, known as the 
" Town Spot," there lived Ebenezer Brush, son of John 
Brush, the miller, Timothy Conkling, Alexander Denton, 
Abel Conkling, Silvanus Chichester, Amos Piatt, Thomas 
Conkling, Jeremiah Wood, Peleg Wood, William Place, 
Conkling Ketcham, Israel Ketcham (Quaker),- John Wil- 
liams and Gilbert, (sons of Justice Williams,) Hubbard 
Conkling, Nathaniel Williams, Silas Sammis, and his sons, 
Phillip and David, Benjamin Gould, Ananias Conkling, 
David Conkling, Henry Sammis, Ezra Conkling John Sam- 
mis, William Ward, Timothy Sammis and his son Scudder, 
Jacob Brush! and two sons, John Wood, John Wheeler 
and his sou John, and numerous members of the Jarvis and 
Piatt families. 



* The original founder in Huntington ot the Sammis family, whose 
descendants are very numerous in this Town was Johu Sauimis, who 
had a grant of land made to him, lying at the head of Cold Spring Har- 
bor. His descendants settled m various parts of the Town, notably on 
West Neck, and in the '•' Town Spot." 

t The first of the name of Brush known in Huntington were Thomas 
and Kichard Brush, who were large landowners in the Town and came 
from Soulhold. Their descendants are numerous and now reside at 
West Neck, Old Fields, Crab Meadow, and in the village. Sherifl" 
David C. Brush, the father of Morris R. Brush, of West Hills, was a 
descendant of this family ; and all of that name in this Town came 
from a connnon ancestor, John Brush, of Southold, the father of 
Thomas and Kichard. 



39 

At West Hills and Sweet Hollow, the j)romineiit family 
names of one liunclred years ago, were Brusli, Cliichester, 
Biirtis, Smith, Wood, White, Nostrand, Collier, Oakerly or 
Oakley, Piatt, Carll, Whitman, Valentine, Ireland, Ketcham 
and Foster. 

At Long Swamp, lived the families of Smith, Lewis, 
Jarvis, Sammis, Kellum, Abbitt, Buffett and Carll. 

At Dix Hills — Carll, Hart, Smith, Valentine,' Baldwin, 
Stratton, Wicks, Blattsley, Lewis, Townsend, Hubbs, Eimp, 
Gillett, Soper, Kelcy, Buifett and Rogers. 

At Old Fields — Smith, Willis, Ireland, Conkling, Lysaght, 

At Cow Harbor— Higby, Udall, Jarvis, Fleet, Hill, Piatt, 
Scndder, Acker ly, Bryan, Rogers, Baldwin, Bunce, Ivelsy, 
Havens, Nicolls, Gildersleeve, Sills and Bishop. 

There were one hundred and one freeholders living in^ 
and about the " Town Spot ;" twenty-nine in West Hills 
and Sweet Hollow ; thirteen in Long Swamp ; thirty-seven 
in " Dick's Hills :" twelve in Old Fields ; and thirty-two in 
Cow Harbor. 

The village Inn was located " down town," as we call it, 
where J. Amherst Woodhull resides, and was kept by Gil- 
bert Piatt and Ananias Piatt, his father before him. There 
were quite a number of houses in that vicinity. It was the 
" village " of Huntington at that time. 

There was also a small house of entertainment, kept by 
an old woman known as '• Mother Chidd " or Chichester, at 
a place called " The Cedars," near the Selleck place, on 
Huntington Bay. at East Neck, which was a resort of British 
and Tory soldiers. Piatt Carll also kept an Inn at '^ Dick's 
Hills," (where his gra,hdson Gilbert now lives,) which was 
a general headquarters for that section of the country. The 
British forces often marched there and made it their stop- 
ping place, on their foraging excursions. He was taken 
prisoner, with Rev. Joshua Hartt, at one time, and confined 
m New York for three months. (The Minister's offence 
was that he performed the marriage ceremony without a 
license.) Mr. Carll was, with his family, violently beaten 



40 

and robbed, in 1783. He suffered large losses from British 
troops, during the war. He died in 1814, aged 77 years. 
Capt. Timothy Carll, his brother, lived at " Dick's Hills," on 
the farm, where his great-grandson, David Carll, now re- 
sides. The old Log House, which is still preserved on the 
place, and is used as a poultry roost, was then a store, kept 
by Capt. Carll, and the only one in that vicinity. 

Thomas Fleet, grand-father of John and Charles Fleet, 
of this village, lived near the shore of Huntington Bay, on 
East Neck, near Capt. Henry S. Hawkins' farm. His father 
Thomas Fleet kept a store at Cold Spring. He was a de- 
scendant of William Fleetwood, who married a sister of 
Oliver Cromwell, left England, after the restoration, and 
settled here, changing his name to Fleet. 

Stephen Kelsey, the great-grandfather of Jesse B. Kelsey, 
of this town, lived at East Neck, near the shore. He was 
one of the patriot Town Committee, and took an active 
part against the British. He is the ancestor of the Kelseys 
in Huntington. 

Jonathan Scudder,* the great-grandfathei of Rev. Dr. 

* The commou ancestor of all the Scutlders on Louo- Island was 
Thomas Scudder.' He was bom in England, and is believed to have 
been among the earliest settlers at Plymouth, Mass. His wife's name 
was Elizabeth. He resided at Salem from 1642 to 1657, and the 
records of that town show grants of land to " Old Goodman Scudder," 
(the term " Goodman" mdicatiug an honorable position in the Puritan 
Church). He died at Salem in 1657, leaving a will, in which he 
named his children John, Thomas (2d), Henry, Elizabeth (who mar- 
ned Bartholomew), and his grandson Thomas (3d), son of his deceased 
son A\^illiam. All these des-cendants of Thomas Scudder came from 
Salem to Southolh on or about the year 1651. The sons, Thomas, 
Henry and John came from Southold to Huntington about 1653 or 
soon thereafter, and were among its earliest settlers. The original 
homestead of Thomas (2d) was at the head of Huntington Harbor, 
where Jacob Scudder, dec'd, lately resided. Henry settled on East 
Neck where Thomas Lord, Jr., iiow owns. John located at Crab 
Meadow. Thomas Scudder (2d) was a tanner, and made the first 
leather manufactured in Huntington. He was a man of great physical 
power, and there is an amusing account in the Court records of his 
"tannlug" James Chichester at a "husking.^' 

" Town Court, Oct. 23, 1662.— Stephen Jervice, as attorney in be- 
halfe of James Chichester, pif. vs. Tho. Scudder, deft., acsion of the 
case and of batery. Deft, says that he did his iudevor to save ye pigg 
from ye wolff, but knows uo hurt his dog did it ; and as for ye sow,"he 
denys the charg ; touching the batery, striking the boye, says he did 



41 
Moses L. Scudder, who sits beside me on this platform, 
lived on East Neck, at the foot of the hill, on premises now 
owned by Thomas Lord, Jr. He was the proprietor of con- 
siderable land in that neighborhood. His great-grandson 
here comes from good stock, being a direct descendant of 
"Brother Jonathan." [Laughter and Applause.] 

Solomon Ketcham, the ancestor of my young friend, 
Douglas Conklin, who has read for us the " Declaration of 
Independence," lived on Main street. He got into a diffi- 



strike the boye but it was for his abusing his daughter. The verdict 
of the jury is, that def'ts dog is not fitt to be cept, but the acsion fails 
for want of testimony ; but tuuehiug the batery, the jury's verdict pass 
tor plff, that deft pay him 10 shillings for striking the boy, and the 
plff to pay deft 5 shillings for his boye's insevilty." Same court. — 
" Racheli Turner sayth, that being husking at Tbo. Powell's,. James 
Chichester found a red ear, and then said he must kiss Bette Scudder ; 
Bette sayd she -would whip his brick, and they too seufeling fell by her 
side ; that this deponent ami Tho. Scudder bemg tracing, and havmg, 
ended his trace, rose up and took howld of James Chichester, and gave 
him a box on the ear. Robard Crumtield says, that bemg husking at 
Tbo. Powell's, James Chiche>ter found a red eare, and then said he 
must kiss Bette Scudder, and they too scufling. Goody Scudder bid 
him be quiet, and puld him from her, and gave him a slap on the side 
of the hcade ; the verdict of the jury is, that James shall paye ye plf 
1 2 shillings and the cost of ye cort." 

Thomas Scudder is named among those holdrag original "rights" 
under the Patents. He died in Huntington in 1690, leaving children, 
Benjamin, Tmiothy, Elizabetli, Mary, Sarah and Cleuiar. His Will 
may be found in the Prerogative Court records. 

"The Scudders on East Xeck nud the east side of Huntington Harbor, 
are nearly all descendants of Thcmias (2ud) ; amoug them are Capt. 
David C. Scudder. Thomas Scudder, Almeda, wife of Capt. Philetus C. 
Jarvio, ISTaomi Street, (daughter of Gilbert Scudder, and mother of 
Chas. R. Street of this village) and Henry G. Scudder. The line of 
descent to Henry G. Scudder is as follows : (1) Thomas Scudder of Sa- 
lem, (2) Thomas Scudder (2d) first settler in Huntington ; (3) Benja- 
min, son of Thomas (2d), and noted in his time as a man of letters ; 
(4) Thomas (3d), sou of Benjamin ; (.3) Thomas (-Ith), a man in the 
vigor of life during the Revolutionary War; (6) Gilbert Scudder; 
(7) Isaiah Scudder. who was the father of Henry G. Scudder. 

Rev. Moses L. Scudder, LL. I)., Hon. Henry J. Scudder. Hewlett 
Scudder. and Mrs. Hemy G. Scudder are likewise descended from the 
same common ancestor. ' They descend from Heuiy Scudder. another 
son of Thomas of Salem. This Henry Scudder, who settled on East 
Neck, married Catharine, daughter of Jeifrey Esty, and had two sons, 
Jonathan and David. Jeft'rey Esty was an old man at the first settle- 
ment here. He was presented to the church at Salem for the heinous 
offence of sleeping in church during service, and was duly admonished 
therefor. His daughter, Mrs. Henry Scudder, was a remarkable busi- 
ness -woman. All the Town taxes i'n her neighborhood were paid to 
her. The Scudders are numerous, at this day, in Hunrington. 



42 

culty at one time with the British soldiers, and snatching a 
picket off of a fence, offered to fight three or four officers. 
Not being very choice in the use of language towards them, 
he was taken prisoner, confined in the Fort on the burying 
hill, and kept on a diet of bread and water. He never for- 
got his imprisonment nor forgave his enemies ; and when 
the British fleet, afterwards, in the war of 1812, di'opped 
anchor in Huntington Bay, the old man might have been 
seen prowling aroiuid the shores of Lloyd's Neck and the 
Bay, musket in hand, and woe to the son of Britain, who 
came within his range. In company with a party, he forci- 
bly boarded a number of British vessels in our Bay in the 
war of 1812, took several prisoners, and kept them in du- 
rance, at his house, until the close of hostilities. 

Samuel Conkling, the father of Strong Conklin, lived in 
an old house that stood where the Woolsey cottage was af- 
terwards built, on the Bowery. He was an outspoken rebel. 
The British tried to take his team away from him, but he 
resisted so energetically, with his stout axe, that they were 
glad to desist. He knocked a British officer down with his 
fist. The soldiers put chase for him. He ran to his house, 
through the hall way, and out the back door, just as his 
pursuers came in the front. He escaped across the fields 
into the woods, and hid in a barn at Cold Spring. The 
British searched every house and barn in Cold Spring, and 
came in the barn, where he was secreted under a mow of 
hay, without discovering him. The next night, he made 
his way through the fields to the Brick yards at West Neck, 
where Kichard Conkling, (the great-grand-father of Joshua 
B. Place of this village) then lived, and borrowing a row- 
boat there, he escaped unier cover of night, to the Con- 
necticut shore, where he remained, doing good service in 
the patriot caiTse, to the end of the Revolution. 

Lemuel Carll lived at West Hills, where his grandson, 
of the same name, resides. He was very fond of the chase, 
and was a great hunter. The British stole hay and wood 
from him, and also a valuable horse, which he found at 



43 

Flushing, after eight months absence, and finally recovered 
it by paying a bribe of six guineas to Capt. Roorbach, a 
British officer. 

Jeremiah Wood,* the ancestor of the Wood family of this 
village, lived on the Cold Spring road. He was forced to 
cart wood, forage, and officer's baggage, by the British, and 
to labor on the forts. He was a large sufferer in hay and 
grain, stolen by the soldiery. 

Isaac Rogers, grandfather of Stephen C. Rogers, Super- 
visor of this Town, and of Isaac and George R. Rogers, of 
this village, lived at Cold Spring on the farm now occupied 
by Henry Rogers. He was forced to fui-nish hay and wood 
to the British, without pay. 

Samuel Oakley, grandfather of Zophar B. Oakley, dec'd, 
and great-grandfather of Mrs. C. D. Stuart, of this village, 
lived at West Hills, on the farm now occupied by his son, 
Solomon Oakley, an aged citizen of this Town. He was 
in hearty sympathy with the rebellion against the mother 
country, and suffered large losses in hay, grain, stock and 
wood, stolen and destroyed. 

Josiah Smith, grandfather of James N. Smith, of this 
village, had a large farm at Long Swamp, where his son 

* The Wood family were amonfr the earliest settlers of the Town. 
Edman Wood is thefirst one uieutioued, whose son Jonas, was one of 
the Patentees of the Town, and a prominent man in Town affairs. He 
died in 1690, leaving Jonas (2d) who owned large tracts of land. Jo- 
nas (2d) left children, John, Jeremiah, Jonas (3d), Timothy, Elizabeth, 
Phebe and Ann. Jeremiah died about 1748, leaving sons, Jeremiah 
(2d) and Jonas. Jeremiah (2d) left four sons, Jeremiah (3d), Stephen, 
Isaac and Pcleg. The old Wood homestead on the Cold Spring road 
seemed to have been kept by the Jerajiiahs of each succeeding gene- 
ration. Jeremiah (3d) died" in 1819, leavmg Prudence (wife of Elka- 
uah Piatt), Jeremiah (ith), Brewstei, Ida (afterwards wife of Gilbert 
Piatt), Phebe, SiTi'ah, Elizabeth (wife of Piatt Conkliu), and Ruth, wife 
of Erastus H. Conklin. Brewster Wood died, leaving sons, Edwin 
Wood, dec'd, (father of Mrs. Wm. D. Woodend, Mrs. Henry F. Sammis, 
and Mrs. Geo. C. Hendrieksou of this village, and of Mrs. Jacob Cross- 
man of Paterson, N. J.), and William J. AVood, George C. Wood, of 
this place, and Brewster Wood, jr., of Brooklyn. Ida Wood, daughter 
of Jeremiah 3d, now dec'd, was' the mother of Mrs Nathaniel Scudder 
Prime, and of Mrs. Mana Dowus, of Huntington, and of Mrs. Phebe 
Arrowsmith, of Brooklvn, and the grandmother of Mrs. Rev. Samuel 
T. Carter, wife of the Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Hun- 
tinsrton. 



44 

Josiah still lives, at an advanced age. He was robbed of 

forage and wood by the British. 

Oliver Hendrickson, grandfather of Joseph M. and Coles 
Hendrickson, of this village, and great-grandfather to the 
young lady who this day personates the Goddess of Liberty, 
lived at Dick's Hills. He was very fond of hunting. By 
occupation, a carpenter, he was forced by Col. Thompson 
to work on the Fort on the old burying hill. 

Selah Smith, the great-grandfather of the editor of the 
Suffolk Bulletin, and the grandfather of Selah Smith, of 
Northport, lived at Long Swamp, having purchased a farm 
there in 1750. The British pressed him into service, in 
carting wood and working on the forts, and stole hay and 
grain from him. 
* Sweet Hollow, or Melville as it is now called, was then 
on the main travelled road which ran through the Island, 
before the Smithtown and Jericho Turnpike was made. It 
was a small settlement, and I will endeavor to describe the 
dwellings there and who lived in them. Where Silas Jar- 
vis now resides, there was an old house occupied by a Mr. 
Powell, whose first name I have been unable to ascertain ; 
where Woodhull Jarvis lives, his grandfather Robert Jarvis 
then resided ; there was another house owned by Charles 
Duryea, great-grandfather of Supervisor Duryea, of Bab- 
ylon, where Isaac M. Baylis now resides ; also a house 
w^iere Joseph Bassett now lives, then occui^ied by Jesse 
Ketcham ; and Zophar Ketcham then lived where Isaac C. 
Ireland's hoiise stands. Zophar Ketcham, of Sweet Hol- 
low, was the grandfather of Zophar and Jacob Ketcham, of 
our village, whom I am glad to see upon this platform. 
The soldiers made him work on the fort at Lloyd's Neck. 
The old man didn't like it much, and resisted, but to no 
pxirpose. They were too strong for him. He said, " the 
British were worse than the Devil, and he could j^rove it 
by Scripture." •' Scripture tells us," said Mr. Ketcham, 
" resist the Devil and he will flee from you, but if we resist 
the British, they get closer to you !" [Laughter and Ap- 



45 
plause.] There was an inn or tavern where Daniel BayHs, 
one of our oldest and most venerable citizens, now resides 
at Sweet Hollow, kept by George Everett and Foster Nos- 
trand before him. Wilmot Oakley kept a store and resided 
where Elias BayHs, Sr. now resides. He was a bold, cour- 
ageous man and a sterling patriot. The British held him 
in great di-ead. They once surroimded his house to cap- 
ture him ; but he had it so strongly barricaded they were 
unable to enter, though they riddled it with bullets. One 
of the soldiers got a sheaf of straw to fire the building, 
when he was shot by Mr. Oakley fiom a garret window, 
after which they dispersed. John Woolsey, the Sweet 
Hollow giant, cleared up a spot and located where James I. 
Shipman now resides, but afterwards removed to Half Hol- 
low Hills. He was a strong powerful man and thought 
nothing of carrying on his back a hogshead, quarter-full of 
molasses, half a mile from Wilmot Oakley's store. He left 
a large family of sons and daughters. The first settlers of 
the numerous Baylis family of Sweet Hollow, whose repre- 
sentatives are here to-day, came from near Springfield and 
Jamaica, in Queens County, at the close of the Kevolution- 
ary War. One of the elder brothers was in the American 
army, under Washington. 

Without wearying yoiir patience by going farther into 
details, I have perhaps stated enough to give a general idea 
of the situation of the dwellings in and about Huntington, 
and of some of the old families living here, at the time of 
the arrival of the British forces. The British soldiers were 
quartered in the houses, in barracks, and encamped over all 
of this part of the Town. Some of them were on Lloyd's 
Neck, West Neck, on the fields between Wall street and the 
Bowery, near Gallows Hill, near the Episcopal Church and 
Presbyterian Church, and between the chui'ch and the 
western part of the village. The Presbyterian Church was 
their stable and store-house. They had a block-house on 
the field adjoining the Union School building, now owned 
by Henry S. Prime. Their whipping post, which was a 



46 

standing tree, flattened on one side, to tie their victims to, 
stood in front of the present school building. They de- 
stroyed and laid waste this whole section of country, until 
provisions and forage became so scarce they were compelled 
to reduce their garrison, and to scatter their troops over 
Wheatley, Jericho, Westbury, Herricks, Northside, Cow 
Neck and Great Neck, and other places to the "West. The 
inhabitants of Huntington were forced, not only to bury 
and secrete their money and valuables, but also their pro- 
visions in order to save them from the soldiery, and to keep 
themselves from starving. Many of the peoj^le of the Town 
were robbed of their money and valuables — and were hung 
up by the neck, until almost dead, to make them reveal 
where they had secreted their money. Two brothers, Zo- 
phar and Joel Rogers, living at Long Hill (now Clay Pitts) 
were hung up by the neck, one after the other, to force 
them to tell where their money was. Zophar was hung up 
three times and left for dead. Joel was stretched up twice. 
Zophar, reviving, aroused some of the neighbors, which 
alarmed the robbers, who fled without having obtained the 
money, which had been hidden in a couple of old shoes. 
Joel Rogers was the grandfather of Thomas Whited Gilder- 
sleeve, of this village. 

Robert Jarvis,* grandfather of Capt. Philetus G. Jarvis, 

* The oldest record of any of the Jarvis family in Huntington is that 
of Stephen Jervice or Jams, who lived here in 1661. A few years 
later, William Jarvis (1679), Thomas Jarvis (1679), Jonathan Jarvis 
(1684:) and John Jarvis (1684), appear to have resided here. John 
Jarvis went to Cape May, New Jersey, and settled there in 1692. 

Stephen Jarvis (1st) had two sons, Stephen (2d), horn June 2, 1683, 
and Abraham, born April 26, 1685. U^illiam Jarvis (1st) had a son, 
William (2d), and William (2d) had the followmg children : Abraham, 
Stephen (3d), Esther, (who married a Stratton), Samuel, William (3d) 
and Mary. The three latter went to liorwaik, (]onn. Mary marned a 
Seymour. Stephen Jarvis (3d), son of William Jarvis (2d),' had twelve 
children : Austin, John, Stephen (4th), Isaac, Thomas, Jjouisa (married 
llezekiah Wicks m 1755), Sarah, Ruth, Esther, Deborah, Mary and 
Daniel. Abraham Jarvis, son of William (2(1), married Lavinia Kogers 
Feb. 26, 1734, his firstwife, and Hannah Conkling (widow), July "31, 
1760, his second wife, and had children: Abraham, Ichabod, Laviuia, 
Elizabeth and Samuel. Samuel Jarvis, son of William (2d), married 
Naomi Brush, and lived in Norwalk. He died in 1756. 

Abraham Jarvis (2d), son of Abraham (1st), married Jerasha Chi- 



47 
who lived at tlie east end of tlie village, and afterwards at 
Sweet Hollow, was gaslied and cut in his head, to force him 
to tell where his money was. He didn't tell — ^but he car- 
ried the marks of his injuries with him to the grave. 

David Rusco and Silas Rusco, the sons of David Rusco, 

Chester and had eight children : Lavinia, Jacob, Elizabeth, Jesse, Ebe- 
nezer. Keziah, Sarah and Margaret. Ichabod Jarvis, son of Abraham 
(Ist)j also had eight children : Israel, Benjamin (who died in Conn.), 
Abigail, Charlotte, Keturah, Hannah, Mehitable, and Sarah. 

Stephen Jarvis (4th), son of Stephen (3d), married Ann WTieeler 
May 15. 1728. He was araaiiner, and died in New York. He had 
six children: Mary, Susannah, Esther, Sarah, William (who died in 
Norwalk), and Thomas (2d). Ebenezer Jarvis, son of Abraham (2d), 
had children : Maria, Sarah, Ebenezer, lantha. Marietta and Jerusha. 
Ebenezer Jarvis, son of Ebenezer, married Prances Kelsey, and after- 
wards Hannah A. Kelsey. 

Thomas Jarvis (2d), son of Stephen (4th), married Eebecca Piatt, 
July 31, 1791. His children were Piatt, Jacob, Joseph, Eeuben, 
Dorcas. Charity, and Sarah. Dorcas married James Dunbar ; Charity, 
Samuel Bishop\ and Sarah, Charles Hewitt. Piatt Jarvis went in U. 
S. Navy. Joseph Jarvis, son of above named Thomas, had four chil- 
dren : Mary Esther (married John Thompson); Phebe Elizabeth (mar- 
ried John Remsen) ; Joseph Henry (married Sarah WTiite) ; and Ketu- 
rah Ann, (married Townsend Gardiner). 

William Jarvis (3d), son of William (2d), had four children : Henry, 
Jonathan, William, Benajah. Hem-v Jarvis, son of William (3d), had 
children : William, Samuel D. and Blkanah. Jonathan Jarvis, son of 
William (3d), had two wives: 1st, Anna Brewster; 2d, Charity White. 
His children were Timothy and Isaiah. Benajah, son of WiUiam (3d), 
had one child, Hannah Jarvis, He went to Nova Scotia after the Re- 
volutionary War. , T 1 J 1 

Robert Jarvis, son of Thomas (2d), married 1st, Sarah Ireland, and 
2d, Margaret Brush His children were, Joseph I., Simon Losee, 
Isaiah, Jonathan, Thomas, Phebe (mamed Piatt Rogers), Sarah (mar- 
ried J. Duryea) and Hannah (married Oliver Smith). Joseph 
I. Jarvis, son of Robert, married Phebe Caril. His chddren 
were Robert, William, Hendrickson, Keturah, Eliza and^Mana. 
Simon Losee Jarvis, son of Robert, mamed Keturah Oonkhn. 
His childreu wore Robnrt, David C, Thomas H. and Elizabeth 
(twins,) Esther, Jonathan, Phebe and Philetus C, _ Iro, Almira, 
Emilous, William H, and John B. Jarvis. Isaiah Jarvis, son of Rob- 
ert, married Christina Gould— had no children. Isaac Jarvis, son ot 
Robert, settled in Ouio, in 184.5, with his children, Isaiah, B luella 
and Ravent. Jonathan Jarvis, son of Robert, marned Deborah W bit- 
man, and had children: Dand, Sarah, Mary Ann Whitson, Aaron 
John, William and Charies. Thomas Jarvis, son of R-^ f I't- marned 
Phebe Rhemp, and his children were : Cariton, Woodhull, Anna and 
Elizabeth, the wife of D. Woodhull Conklin, of this village. 

Elizabeth Jai-vis, daughter of Simon Losee Jarvis, marned Cq,pt. 
Dean. Her daushter islhe wife of Thomas Aitkin of this village. 

The Jarvis families owned land, m the eariy days of the Town, cm 
East Neck, the "Town Spot," Sweet HoUow, and Crab Meadow. 
Their descendants are yery numerous in Huntington Townsbip. 



,48 

Sr., who lived in the house where William C. Scudder re- 
sides, were forced to work on the Forts, and to cart wood 
for the British. Silas Rusco was the father of David Rusco, 
now deceased, late of this village, and grandfather of Horace 
Rusco, now residing here. David Rusco (son of David, Sr.) 
played a trick upon some British soldiers, who came to steal 
hay from him, during the Revolution, and had to hide him- 
self in a cave in the woods to escape their vengeance, until 
he found his way across the Sound to Connecticut, where 
he remained during the war. 

John Haff, of the south side of the Town, was noted for 
being a curiosity, as the ugliest looking man in Suffolk Co. 
He took pride in his uncouth appearance. At one time, 
during the Revolution, he met a party of British officers, 
riding in a wagon, on a road on the south side of the Turn- 
pike, just below Piatt Carll's, where the road was and is 
too narrow for vehicles to pass each other. The question 
for debate was, who should back out to a wider part of the 
highway. Haff looked at the party and discovered the 
driver, an officer, to be worse looking than himself. " I wish 
you were dead," said Haff. " What do you mean, you rebel 
scoundi'el 1 " retorted the British driver. " Why," replied 
Haff, " before you arrived in Huntington, I used to make 
money, showing my face at sixpence a sight, as the ugliest 
man in the Town — but now I'm done. You can beat me, 
and I'll give up the business." The officers laughed at 
their driver, who good-naturedly backed out, and allowed 
Haff to go on his Avay. 

Selah Wood,* who lived at West Hills, where Andrew 



* Selah "Wood was an elder brother of Hon. Silas "Wood, the histonan, 
and of Samuel "Wood. Their father's name was Joshua Wood, who 
was a descendant of Jonas "Wood, of Halifax, who first settled in Hemp- 
stead m 1G44 ; then in Southampton m 1649, and afterwards at "West 
Hills, in Huntmgton, in 1G55. Jonas "Wood was drowned in attempt- 
ing to ford Peconic Kiver near Kiverhead, m 1660. 

Silas "Wood, tbe historian, was born at West Hills, Sept. 14, 1769. 
At the age of thirteen he was sent to Rev. Mr. Talmage, of Brook- 
haven for tuition. At fifteen he went to Fairfield, Conn., to school. At 
sixteen he went to Princeton College, and graduated at the end of four 
years ; was then employed as a tutor in the College for five years. In 



49 
Powell now resides, was strung up by the neck and left for 
dead, but was cut down by a negro wench, who discovered 
him, before life was extinct. 

When a British officer, in command of the Hessians, took 
possession of the house of Reuben Rolph, grandfather of 
Jarvis R. Rolph, he was frank enough to t ?11 him, if he had 
any money or valuables about the house, to put them out 
of the way before his soldiers arrived, as he had the worst 
set of scoundrels with him ever created. Mrs. Rolph had 
a purse of gold in her hand just as the Hessians marched 
in the gate, and in the hurry of the moment, threw it under 
the gooseberry bushes in the garden. She recovered it the 
next day, and hid it in a more secure place. Mr. Rolph 
lived in the eastern part of the "Town Spot." 

A party of Hessian robljers attacked the house of widow 
Piatt (widow of Ananias Piatt), where James Houston and 
John Stewart kept store " down town," and at midnight 
broke open a window with a sledge-hammer. They fired 
several shot into the house, which was defended by John 
Stewart, Gilbert Piatt, and a negro named " Lige," or Elijah, 
who performed wondrous deeds of valor, during the en- 
gagement. John Stewart killed one of the robbers, in the 
kitchen. Elijah knocked one on the head with a hatchet. 
The firing alarmed the neighbors, who seized their weapons 
and repaired to the scene, where they found the robbers had 
fled, and Elijah, the negro, shot through the head, but still 
living. This negro was a tough specimen. The musket 
ball went through his head and came out the back part of 



1795. he was elected Member of Assembly from Suffolk County, and 
servf'd for four years. In 1804, he was offered the Presidency of the 
Esopus AcademV, and in 180.5 he was chosen a Professor in Union 
Colleiie, both of which he declined. He was admitted to the bar in 
1 81 1), and made a solicitor in chancery in 1813. He was a reo'ular 
contributor to the Montr/ornery Republican, while practising law in New 
York. He returaed to Huntington in 1813. In 1817 he was elected 
to OonoTCNS, and re-elected for hve successive terms. In 1828, he 
was defeated by Hon. James Kent, by 274 majority. He made some 
sensible' and eloquent speeches in Congress, which attracted general 
attention at the time. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Josiah Smith, 
of Long Swamp. He died March 2, 1847, in the seventy-eighth year 
of his age, leaving no children. 



50 

bis cranium. He lived many years afterwards, and was a 
great fiddler, furnishing the rustic parties in Huntington, 
of that time, with music for dancing. In after years, on 
one occasion, the Rev. Nathan Woodhull, the minister, who 
was very austere and rigid in his social notions, came into 
the private house of one of his parishoners, where there was 
assembled a party of young people, dancing to the bewitch- 
ing strains of " Lige's" fiddle. There was a bed in a corner 
of the room, according to the custom of the period, on which 
Elijah sat, drawing his bow over his old "Cremona." The 
minister, shocked at such " worldliness " and levity, opened 
the door of the room, where they were dancing, and in a 
deep, sepulchral voice, said, as he fell on his knees, " Let 
.us pray !" at which the young men and maidens screamed 
and scattered, and " Lige," thinking his time had come, 
shot under the bed, with his fiddle, like a streak of light- 
ning ! [Laughter]. 

A party of armed men, with bayonets, came to the house 
of Gilbert and Simon Fleet, in the Town of Huntington, 
and robbed them and their families of all the money and 
plate they could find, and ilearly strangled one of them to 
death by hanging him to a beam in his kitchen. 

Among other inhabitants who were forcibly robbed, were 
Moses Jarvis, merchant, of Huntington, Shubael Smith 
(Tory), Mr. Weser, who lived eight miles east of Hunting- 
ton, Jesse Conklin, of Bushy Plains, and numerous otherp. 

Ezra Conkling,* who lived at the time, in the house, 



* The (Jonkling or Conkliu family on Long Island are very numer- 
ous. The first one of the name known here appears to have been 
" John Gonclin," who was born about 1600 and had a son John born 
in England in 1630. He was one of the "Pilgrim Fathers," and 
came from Nottinghampshirc, England ; lived in Salem, Massachu- 
setts in 1649. His wife's name was Mary. As early as 1660, if not 
earlier, John Gonclin, Sr., with bis son Timothy, came from Southold 
and settled in Huntington. His other sons, John, Jr., Jacob, Benja- 
min and Joseph, settled at Southold, and some of their descendants 
still reside at the east end of the County. Senator Roscoe Conkling is 
said to be a descendant of the eastern branch of the family. John, Sr., 
and his son Timothy, owned laud at West Neck, near wbere Gilbert 
Grossman, dec'd, formerly lived. They were both freeholders, and 
their names appear in the records and rate bills. Timothy was one of 
the purchasers from the Indians, under Gov. Fletcher's Patent of 



51 
which is now a barn, on the premises of George C. Gould, 
in the eastern part of the village, and whose grandchildren 
and great-grandchildren are now living in Huntington, and 
many of whom I see here to day, was a great sufferer fi-om 
the British soldiers, who stole almost everything eatable 
off of his farm. In order to hide a fat calf for his own use, 
he i^laced it in his milk-room, where it was secreted and fed. 

1694. He had four sons. Timothy, Jr., John, Jacob and Cornelius, 
all residing on West Neck during early life. Cornelius weut to Cold 
Sprinsi; John moved to Clay Pitts ; Timothy remamed on West Neck, 
, and the Conklius ot Huutiugton are mostly his descendants. Jacob 
in 1711 i)archased a large tract of laud at Half Hollow Hills. He 
married Hannah Piatt, daughter of Epenetus, aud lived to an old age. 
He was the ancestor of ex-Sherifl' Jesse Coukliu, of Babylon. 

Ezra Conkling, above mentioned, was a descendant of Timothy 
Conkling. He married Sarah Piatt, daughter of Isaac Piatt (3d), of 
Huutiugton, and had nine children, viz.: Piatt, Brastus Harvey, Ezra, 
Woodhull, Elizabeth, Experience, Letitia, Matilda and Maria. Piatt 
Conklin, son of Ezra, lived at *• Clam Point," Huutiugton Harbor, 
married Elizabeth Wood, daughter of Jeremiah Wood (3d), aud had 
the following children : Ansel and Brewster (twins), Warren, Frank, 
Jeremiah, William, Mary, Matilda and Elizabeth. Erastus Harvey 
Couklin, son of Ezra, married Ruth Wood, sister to Elizabeth and 
daughter of Jeremiab Wood (3d), aud had the following children : 
Charles, Ezra, Maria, Sarah and Deborah — all living in Huutiugton ex- 
cept Ezra, who died in California. Maria is the wife of Frederick G. 
Sammis ; Sarah, the widow of Heniy Downs ; Deborah, the widow of 
Jesse Gould. Exra Coukliu (2d), sou of Ezra, married Jaue A. Brown, 
of Huntington, aud had three children : Seaman, Sarah Maria and 
Mary Emeline Coukliu. Woodhull Couklin, son of Ezra, married in 
Jamaica, L. I. Elizabeth Coukliu, daughter of Ezra, married Silas 
Ketcham, of Huntington, and had children: Silas T., Ezra C, Wood- 
hull, Henry, Jane, Maria, Elizabeth and Sarah Ketcham. Expeiieuce, 
daughter of Ezra, married Ebenezer Prime and had eleven childreu : 
Edward T., Ezra C, Henry K., Claudius B., Nathaniel Scudder, 
Matilda, Manetta, Ann, Mary, Sarah aud Margaret Prime. Letitia 
Conklin, daughter of Ezra, married Woodhull Woolsey, of Hunting- 
ton,- and had issue: Phebe, John K., Ezra and jSTewell Wool.iey. 
Matilda Conklin, daughter of Ezra, married Brewster Wood, son of 
Jeremiah Wood (3d), and had live childreu: Edwm, William J., 
George C, Brewster and Deborah. Maria Conklin, daughter of Ezra, 
man-ied Gilbert Piatt, of Huntington, and had one child, Sarah Piatt. 
Gilbert Piatt's second wife was Ida Wood, daughter of Jeremiah 
Wood (3c1). 

Timothy Conkling. a brother of Ezra Conkling, who lived in Hun- 
tington in Eevolutionarv times, married Mary Piatt, daughter of Isaac 
Piatt (3d). The two brothers married sisters. Timothy had eight 
children : Isaac, Jesse, Elkanah, Timothy Titus, Sarah, Ruth,. Emma 
and Keturah Couklin. Col. Isaac Conklin, son of Timothy, married 
Hannah, daughter of Solomon Ketcham, and had children : Jonas P., 
Washington, Irene, Thenna and Cornelia Conklin. Col. Isaac Coukliu 
was a Member of Assembly in 1819, from this Couuty. Like Grant 
he was not much of a talker. He never made but one speech while lu 



52 

He had a tory neighbor, living below him, whose daughters 
iised to flirt considerably with British officers, (girls used 
to flirt in those days) and they informed the officers where 
this calf was hidden. On the pretence of searching for a 
deserter, several British soldiers came to his house early 
one morning. Going up stairs, they threw two of the chil- 



the Leg'i!?lature. He sat listeniae to the remarks of a fellow member 
urgin{]f the appointment of a candidate to some position, with ill-con- 
cealed impatience, and at the close he arose to hi-i feet and said : " Mr. 
Speaker, thatfelhtc hti't any more fit Jar his position than HcU is for a 
powder houss ! " The House loared. The Speaker of the Assembly, 
appreciatiDg the situation, rapped loudly with his gavel and shoi;te,l, 
amidst the merriment of the members : " The Houss tcill come to order ; 
the gentleman from Suffolk has made a speech ! " 

Jesse Conklin, sou of Timothy, married Phebe Wood, of New York 
City, and had children : Elbert, Ida aud Isaac (twins), l^elson, Timo- 
thj', Jesse, Phebe, Mary, Kate and Richard L. Conklin. Elkanah 
Conklin, son of Timothy, never married. Timothy Titus Couklin, son 
of Timothy, married Amelia Rhemp, and had two children : David 
Woodhnll Couklin, now living in Huntington, and Mary Elizabeth, 
mother of Mrs. Edmund R. Aitkin, of this village, and wife of Joseph 
M. Heudrickson. Ruth Conklin, daughter of Timothy, married George 
Sammis, of West Neck, and had children : Frederick G., Stephen, 
Warren G. and Henrietta Sammis, wife of Nathan B. Conklin. Emma 
Couklin, daughter of Timothy, married Obadiah Rogers, of Cold 
Spring, aud had several sons aud daughters. Ketarah Conklin, 
daughter of Timothy, married Joseph Smith Roe, and had children : 
Maria, Susan aud Eliza (twins), James, Isaac Watts and Smith Roe. 
Susan IS the wife of Smith Rowland, of this village. The Couklin 
family are very numerous in the Town of Huntington. 

The first of the Gould family known in Huutiugton was Ebenezev 
Gould, who lived on West Neck, prior to the Revolutiou. He was a 
descendant of Ebeuezer Gould, of Fairiield, Conn., who was one of the 
principal men there in 1658; in 1660 Gould, Kucwles and Hill of 
Fairtield were appointed to settle a dispute between Norwalk and the 
Indians. Ebeuezer Gould, of West Neck, had children : Ebeuezer 
and Joseph. Joseph had a sou aud Ebeuezer had sous: Ebeuezer (od) 
and Conkhn. Beniamin, son of Joseph, married Elizabeth Piatt, 
daughter of Isaac Piatt (;kl), aud had three children : Walter, Jesse 
aud Piatt Gould. 

Ebeuezer Gould (3d), son of Ebeuezer, marned Lavmia C<mklin, a 
sister of Capt. Nathan Conklin, and had several children, among them 
Sarah, afterv.'ards wife of David Piatt, of this village. He kept a 
hotel in the old house now owned by Rev. James McDougall, on Main 
street in this village. Conklin Gould, son of Ebenezer, married Ruth 
Sammis (still living at an advau(j4',d age), and had several children, 
among them George C. Gould, who resides in Huntington. 

Walter Gould, sou of Benjamin, married Anna Ketcham, daughter 
of John Ketcham, aud had children : Brewster, Ira, John, Stephen K., 
Edward, Mary aud Elizabeth Gould. Jesse Gould, son of Benjamin, 
married Elizabeth Piatt, daughter of Zebulon Piatt, aud had children: 
Piatt, Fayette, Ralph and Mary Gould. Piatt Gould, son of Benja- 
min, died young and left no issue. 



53 
dren of Mr. Conkling out of their bed, and cut the rope un- 
derneath the bedding, stating they had found a deserter 
down stairs in the milk room, and wanted some rope to tie 
him with. They marched off to camp, with the struggHng 
prize, which met the fate of War. 

On one occasion a British dragoon, riding upon his horse, 
by Ezra Conkling's residence, when he was away from 
home, saw a goose wandering in the door yard by the road- 
side. It tempted his appetite. He took a fish hook, baited 
it with a kernel of com, tied it to a long string, and without 
dismounting, threw it on the ground near the goose, and 
retained the end of the string in his hand. The goose was 
such a goose, as to swallow that kernel of corn, and with it, 
the hook. And as soon as he had swallowed it, the dragoon 
started his horse off for camp, on a full gallop ; the goose, 
fast to the string, was jerked up in the air, and as a natural 
consequence flew along after the horse and rider. The 
good old lady of the house, appearing in the doorway, threw 
up both hands in astonishment, and being imable to see 
the string, or to comprehend the exact situation, exclaimed : 
" Well, I never ; if our old goose isn't fighting the British !" 
[Laughter.] It is needless to say that goose was cooked 
in camp, by the foul dragoon who hooked it. 

We smile at these and other similar incidents of one hun- 
dred years ago, yet, in the aggregate, they were of serious 
consequence to the inhabitants, who were reduced to pover- 
ty, suffering and want. Consider the position of the people 
of Huntington. A powerful British force sufficient to des- 
troy all the inhabitants, at their will, was quartered in their 
midst, hving upon them by forced levies ; the British ves- 
sels and transports were in our Bays and Harbors, shutting 
off any way of general escape by water to the Connecticut 
shore ; the fathers and brothers in many families had fled 
from their homes, and a number had joined the patriot 
army, leaving old men, women and children, to live as best 
they could, without manly protection ; their crops, farms, 
fences and buildings, seized, burned and destroyed, at the 



54 

whim of petty British officers, who lorded it over the con- 
quered people, and eat up their substance, like an army of 
locusts. They were a conquered community — the hewers 
of wood* and drawers of water, for the King's military ser- 
vice. They were made to labor upon the forts ; transport 
cannon from a long distance, cart officers baggage as far 
east as Southampton, and as far west as New York ; to cut 
and cart wood and deliver it on board of British transports 
in Cold Spring and Huntington Bays, and to go a long dis- 
tance upon foraging parties. If British soldiers wanted a 
farmer's horse, they took it — or as it was called " impressed" 
it — if they wanted firewood, they burnt up the fences ; if 
they were hungry, they " impressed " a sheep, a calf, a steer, 
or seized poviltry in the first convenient barn-yard, and took 
forcible possession of the best houses for their quarters, 
turning families adrift. It is stated to me by some of the 
oldest inhabitants, that British soldiers, in several instances 
stole all the bedding and clothing in the houses of their 
ancestors ; seized and carried off the blankets from infants 
in their cradles, leaving them entirely exposed. And if any 
silver spoons were about, the Royal dragoons or the hire- 
ling Hessians " impressed " them into his Majesty's service, 
without any compunctions of conscience. 

Huntington had no cessation of this constant drain upon 
the property and resources of her conquered population, 
until the close of the war. Nor did this part of Long 
Island feed the British alone. War knows no law. It eats 
up friend and foe alike. The American army, in Connecti- 
cut, or detachments from it, made secret and ftequent ex- 
cursions to Long Island, in sailing vessels and whale boats, 
with two objects in view, both of which were equally 



* A proclamation was issued by Capt. Geu. James Eobinson, a Brit- 
ish officer, on June 16, 1780, commanding, among other things, the 
inhabitants of Huntington, Islip, Smithtown and Brookhaven, to Cut 
and cart three thousand cords of wood to the nearest landings, on or 
before the 15th of August of that year. 

In 1781 the people of Huntington were forced by the British to 
raise £176 by tax, as commutation for labor, towards digging a well 
in the fort on Lloyd's Neck. 



55 
disastrous to the inhabitants : one was to procure pro- 
visions to feed the American army, as much as they couki 
transport ; and the other was to destroy the balance of pro- 
duce and property, in order that the British might not be 
able to seize it for their benefit. In September, 1776, Col. 
Henry B. Livingston, a courageous and dashing American 
officer, made a raid in this County and took off 3,129 sheep 
and 400 head of horned cattle. Christopher Leffingwell, 
commanding the Norwich Light Infantry Company, in the 
same month and year, took off 790 sheep, 152 head of cattle 
and several families, with their effects. These raids from 
Connecticut were constantly kept up and were engineered 
and planned, in many cases, by the refugees from Hunting- 
ton, who had fled across the Sound. One of the most ac- 
tive of these patriots, who was constantly planning raids 
and torments for the Tories, and excursions from Connecti- 
cut for the captui'e of British officers on Long Island, was 
Henry Scudder, who was one of the original members of 
the Town Committee, and a man of ability and great force 
of character. He was taken prisoner at the battle of Long 
Island, but released by Col. Upham. He visited British 
forts and went within the British lines for the patriots, at 
the risk of his life. He drew a plan of " Fort Slongo," at 
Fresh Ponds (so named after a British officer) and forward- 
ed it to the Americans, who afterwards captured and burnt 
it. He had many hair-breadth escapes from capture — once 
hiding behind a log, while the British cavalry were within a 
few feet of him. 

Capt. Coffin, a British officer, with his company, at one 
time searched for him in his dwelling-house at Crab Mead- 
ow, the sai&e house where my friend here. Sheriff Lewie, 
was afterwards born. Capt. Coffin pointed a pistol at Mrs. 
Scudder's head, threatening to blow her brains out, if she 
didn't reveal his whereabouts. (Mr. Scudder's wife was a 
Carll.) He was concealed in a chimney and was not found. 
As Capt. Coffin went away he said to Mrs. Scudder : " If I 
don't find your rebel husband in a week, I'll be in my coffin." 
He little di-eamed his words would come true. In less than 



56 

a week Henry Scudder, with a party of rebels, surrounded 
widow Chichester's house at the " Cedars," shot Capt. Cof- 
fin, as he was playing cards, and took sixteen prisoners. 

After the war Henry Scudder was a member of the con- 
vention that framed the State Constitution, and represent- 
ed this County for several terms in the Legislature. The 
British " hankered " after him, and if they had caught him 
would doubtless have executed him as a spy — which would 
have been unfortunate in two respects — the Town would 
have lost a good citizen one hundred years ago, and we 
would not have had the pleasure upon this occasion, of lis 
tening to his grandson, Hon. Henry J. Scudder, our 
ex-Member of Congress. 

There are records of the following Patriot Refugees from 
the Town of Huntington, who at various times, crossed to 
Connecticut, on service in the Patriot cause : 



Capt. John Conklin, 
i- Dr. Gilbert Potter, 
(■ Ebenezer Piatt, 
Jacob Titus, 
Thomas Conklin, 
\^ Zachariah Eogers, 
< Cornelius Conkliu, 

V Ebenezer Conklin, 

V Alexander Conklin, 

V Carll Ketcham, 
W. Sammis, 
James Hubbs, 
Benj. Blachly, 



Pearson Brush. 
Joseph Titus, 
Timothy "Williams, 
Thomas Wicks, 
Jesse Brush, 
Thomas Brush, Jr., 
Gilbert Bryant, 
John Sloss Hobart. 
Selah Conklin, 
Ezekiel Wickes, 
John Carll, 
Henry Scudder, 
Joshua Rogers, 



Jarvis Rogers, 
Jesse Arthur, 
Josiah Buffett, 
Seth Marvin, 
Zebulon Williams, 
John Lloyd, Jr., 
Lloyd's Neck. 
Richard Sammis, 
William Hartt, 
Stephen Kelsey, 
Eliphalet Brush, 
Benjamin Titus, 
William Sammis, 



of 



Cornelius Conkling's farm was seized by Joseph Hoit ; 
Thomas Brush, jr's., by Jabeth Cabbs ; William Sammis's 
by Jeams Ketcham ; Gilbert Bryant's by Samuel Hitch- 
cock ; Josiah Bulfett's by Stanton & Bii'dseye ; Joshua 
Rogers' by Nathaniel Jervis ; Thos. Wicks' by JMr. Burr ; 
Jesse Brush's by the Hoberts, and Isaiah Whitman's, by 
Filer Dibble. Major Jesse Brush wrote a note to the occu- 
pants of his farm, of which the following is a copy : 

August 25, 1780. 
" I have repeatedly ordered you to leave my farm. This is the last 
invitation. If you do not, your next landfall will be in a warmer cli- 
mate than any you ever lived in yet. Twenty days you have to make 
your escape." 



57 

He is described as "a small well built man, with red liair, 
sandy complexion^ and a bright eye, strong as Hercules, 
and bold as a Lion," He was in Sept. 1780 taken prisoner, 
and confined in jail in New York, until exchanged. 

With the British forces in possession, and the Patriot 
forces making constant raids on their property, the people 
of Huntington were between two fli'es. An extract from 
Gaine's N. Y. Mercury^ dated February 1777, will give an 
idea how the people of Huntington were then suffering un- 
der the fortunes of War. The British troops " are billeted 
on the inhabitants, all of them without pay, and have plun- 
dered, stole and destroyed to such a degree, that the inhab- 
itants must unavoidably starve in a little time for want of 
food. Sundry of the principal men have been beaten in an 
unheard of manner,, for not complying witli their unrighteous 
requests. * * * * The Meeting House has been made 
a store house of ; na public worship allowed of, and the 
good people assembled five miles out of town, at West 
Hills — they followed them and broke up their assembling 
together any more." 

The church here alluded to was the Presbyterian Church. 
The British took possession of it, tore up the seats, and 
used it for stables and storehouse. The bell, which cost 
the Town £75, was taken away by Captain Ascough and 
put on board of the " Swan," a British vessel in the Bay. 
It was afterwards restored, but in a cracked and useless 
state. 

In 1782 Col. Benjamin Thompson ordered the Church to 
be pulled down, and the beams, timber and plank, were 
used to construct barracks for the red coats, in the fort 
erected upon the old biuying hill. 

The aged pastor of the Church, Rev. Ebenezer Prime,* 



* Kev. Ebenezer Prime was the father of Dr. Beujamm Youngt^ 
Prime, who was born in Hrdatin«-tou in 1733, graduated at Princeton 
College in 1751, and in 1756-7 was employed as a tutor m the vo\- 
letve. He subsequently entered upon a course of medica studies, with 
I)r Jacob Ogdei of Jamaica, Long Island. After hmshmg his pre- 
paratory studies, and spending several years in the practice of physic, 
he relinqmshed an extensive business, and witli a view of quahtymg 



58 

was abused and maltreated as an " old rebel." The British 
officers turned him out of his house, and took it for their 
quarters ; used his stables for their horses, broke his fur- 
niture, mutilated and destroyed the most valuable books in 
his library, and committed other similar acts of vandalism. 
Mr. Prime died during the war, in 1779, in the seventy 
ninth year of his age, and there was no minister in Hun- 
tington thereafter until 1785. 

Of the fortifications or earthworks erected by the British 
in and about Huntington, there were several. There was 
a small earthwork on rising ground near the Episcopal 
Church. There is a grave stone in the Episcopal burying 
ground west of the Church, with a hole in it, where a cannon 
ball went through. There is a tradition that a rebel was 
hiding behind it, at the time the shot was fired by the Brit- 
ish, who was instantly killed. There was another fort, 
and a more extensive one on Gallows Hill, the remains of 
which are still plainly visible, although somewhat covered 
by a growth of cedar trees. Two American spies, whose 
names are unknown and cannot be ascertained, were hung 



liimself still more, sailed for Europe. In the course of the voyage, the 
vessel was attacked by a French privateer, and the Doctor was slightly 
wounded in the encounter. 

He attended some of the most celebrated schools in London, Edm- 
burgh, and Pa "is, makmg an excursion to Moscow. He was honored 
with a degree at most of the mstitations whicb he visited, and was 
much noticed for his many accomplishments. 

On his return to Amenca, he establisbed hi'uself in the city of New 
Yo^k, where he acquired a high reputaiiou ; but on the entry of the 
British troops, in Sept. 1776, he was compelled to abandon his busi- 
ness and prospects, taking refuge with his family in Connecticut. He 
was a diligent student, and made himself master of several languages, 
in all which he could converse or write with equal ease. Although 
driven from his home, he indulged his pen with caustic severity upon 
the enemies of his couutry, and did much to laise tbe hopes and stimu- 
late the exertions of his fellow-citizens. Soon after his return from 
Europe, he morried Mary, widow of the Rev. Mr. Greaton, a woman of 
superior mind and acquirements, aud peace being restored, he settled 
as a physician in bis native place, where he enjoj^ed a lucrative prac- 
tice, and the highest esteem of all who knew b'im, until his death, Oct. 
31. 1791. 

His widow survived him more than forty years, and died at the ex- 
treme age of nmety-one yeai-s, in March, i 835. By her, Dr. Pnme 
had sons Ebenezer and Nathaniel, and daughters Lybia, Nancy, and 
Mary. 



59 
by tlie British upon tlie hill, and close by the fort. The 
grandfather of Stephen K. G-ould, of this village, recollect- 
ed seeing these two men, when he was about fourteen years 
of age, sitting on their coffins, and riding to their doom on 
Gallows Hill. They were brought from Lloyd's Neck and 
there executed. Ever since the occurrence, the place of 
their execution has been known to the inhabitants as " Gal- 
lows Hill." Fort Slongo was at Fresh Ponds. There was 
another fort, on Lloyd's Neck, Fort Franklin, which Avas 
occupied and garrisoned by the British during the war, the 
remains of which are clearly marked. The Huntington 
Militia, mustering fifty-four men, were made, by the British, 
to tiirn out and work to build this fort. The troops of the 
British were in barracks, except a few in the fort, and en- 
camped from one hiuidred to three hundred yards from the 
fort. Four long twelve j)ounders, and two three pounders, 
were mounted on the walls, and inside the fort was a brass 
four pound field piece. A picket was kept at a high blufl* 
near the entrance to Huntington Bay, but the beach was 
not particularly guarded. 

Perhaps the crowning outrage committed by the British 
in Huntington was the desecration of the Burying Hill or 
Cemetery. The graves were levelled, and a fort erected in 
the centre of the grounds, under the orders of Col. Thomp- 
son, called "Fort Golgotha." AVhile building this fort. 
Col. Thompson's troops destroyed over one hundred tomb- 
stones ; cut down one hundred and fourteen apple and 
pear trees in Dr. Zophar Piatt's orchard ; stripi^ed three 
hundi-ed and ninety feet of boards from Henry Sammis' 
barn ; pulled down the old Presbyterian Church, and took 
one thousand feet of boards from the Fresh Pond Meeting 
House, and two hundred and sixty feet offence that enclosed 
the burying ground. They forced Silas Sammis, who was 
a carpenter, to work on the fort for fifteen days, and pressed 
all the carpenters and many others into the service. They 
turned John Sammis out of his house for three months and 
six days, and quartered in it, and stripped his barn of one 



60 

thousand five hundred and sixty-six feet of boards ; de- 
stroyed and burnt nine thousand five hundred chestnut rails 
belonging to John Sammis, Sylvanus Chichester, Timothy 
Conkling, Ezra Conkling, Widow Piatt, Eliphalet Stratton, 
Israel Wood, Ananias Conkling, Widow Brush, Conkling 
Ketcham, Phillip Conkling, Jonas Williams, Peleg Wood, 
Ezekiel Conkling, Richard Rogers and Rachel Williams. 

Barracks for the trooj^s were built over the bones of 
Huntington's early inhabitants. Tombstones were used 
for tables, and for building fire-places and ovens. The bar- 
racks were scenes of revelry, profanity and debauchery', and 
over the sacred dust of Huntington's dishonored dead, this 
British officer, a native of Massachusetts, held high Carnival. 

O'er the plain Tombs, insulting' Britons tread, 
Spurn at the Earth, and curse the rebel dead. 

This fort upon the old burying hill faced the north, and 
overlooked the Harbor and the Bay. It was about five rods 
in front, with a gate in the middle, and extended a consid- 
erable distance north and south. The works were altogether 
of earth, about six feet high ; no pickets or any other ob- 
struct'ion, except a sort of ditch, and some brush like small 
trees, fixed on the top of the works in a perpendicular 
form. It contained about two acres of ground, including 
the burying ground. The troops then consisted of Thomp- 
son's Regiment, the remains of the Queen's Rangers, and 
Tarleton's Legion, being 550 effective men ; they weie 
quartered as compacLfis possible in the inhabitants' houses 



and barns, and some ^SSSST^ along the sides of the fort, 
which made one side of the hut. " The inhabitants," says 
the spy, from whose description we are indebted for infor- 
mation of this fort, " do suffer exceedingly from the treat- 
ment they receive from the troops, who say the inhabitants 
of that County are all rebels, and therefore they care not 
how they suffer." 

It has been handed down to us from old men, who sur- 
vived the perils and disasters of those gloomy days, that 
they had witnessed the grave stones of their fathers and 
their friends used for British ovens, on the old burying hill ; 



61 
and had seen loaves of bread drawn out of the ovens, with 
the reversed inscriptions of the tombstones imprinted on 
the lower crust.* This fort or redoubt was leveled by the 
people in 1784. The bricks, posts and boards of the fort 
were sold by the Town at public auction, and the proceeds 
used to erect a fence around the parsonage. 

The officer who was in command, dming this time, was 
afterwards an eminent scientific man, and was created a 
Bavarian Nobleman, under the title of " Count Rumford." 
God never created him a nobleman by nature. I find a 
sketch of his career in a letter from Paris, (under date of 
October 24, 1807) where he then resided, in which he is 
personally described as a tall man, more than six feet in 
height, and of a dignified appearance. " At first view," 
says the writer, " you would suppose him to be a man, pos- 
sessing no inconsiderable share of moroseness and austerity 
of character. You would notice in his countenance a cer- 
tain lineament, which indicates something repulsive in his 
disposition." I find another sketch of this " distinguished 
personage " printed in the " Farmer's Cabinet ' in 1814. 
His life as an eminent scientist, was published by Hai-vard 
University, to which he left a bequest, at his death. It 
may be found in our Public Library. But humanity is 
higher than science ; and no distinction in the arts and 
sciences, can ever w4pe oiit the disgrace and inhumanity of 
his brutal, wanton and unfeeling conduct, in desecrating 
the graves of Huntington's dead. A monument is said to 
have been erected to his memory. Verily may we say, of 
our ancestors, whose graves be desecrated. It is better to 
sleep in death, with naught but the green sod to mark the 



* Mary Rolph, grandmother of Justice Jarvis R. Rolph, of Hundnp;- 
ton, saw these loaves of bread, with imprinted letters from gravestones 
on the bottom. 

Some of the tombstones were carted for preservation by rela- 
tives of the deceased persons, wbose graves they designated, out as 
far as West Hills, and left on the premises now occupied by Philo 
R. Place. 



62 

spot of their resting place, than to lie pressed with a load 

of monumental marble. 

The joy 

With wliioh their chiltlren tread the hallowed ground, 
That holds their venerated bones?, the peace 
Tliat smiles on all tliey fonglit for, and the wealth 
That clothes the land tliey rescued— these, tho' mute, 
As feeling ever is wlien deepest— these 
Are monuments more lasting than tlie fanes 
Beared to the kings and demi-gods of old 

[Applause.] 
In contrast to the conduct of the British towards the 
Americans in Huntington. I may relate an incident. Mid- 
shipman Hardy, during the Revolutionary war, was afflicted 
with the small pox, while on board of a British man-of-war 
in Huntington Bay. He was taken ashore and placed in 
the small pox hospital, in the eastern part of the village, on 
the premises now owned by Rufus Prime, Esq. Dr. Gilbert 
Potter, being an active and zealous rebel, had fled to Con- 
necticut, with others, and joined the patriots on the main 
shore. He left everything in Huntington, in charge of his 
wife, Elizabeth Williams Potter, a daughter of Nathaniel 
Williams, an ediicated and remarkable woman, who not 
only took charge of all his affairs during his absence, but 
assumed the Doctor's medical jDractice ; and if tradition be 
true, she was as good a doctor as her husband. In the 
coiu'se of her medical practice, she attended the young 
British naval officer, Midshipman Hardy, at the hospital, 
and taking a fancy to him, had him removed to her dwell- 
ing-house (on what is now called Wall street) where she 
doctored, nursed and attended him so faithfully, that he 
recovered, and returned to his ship in the Bay. At this 
time, her son, (afterwards Judge) Nathaniel Potter, was 
a young man in his teens, and living at home with his 
mother — although he afterwards, by his father's aid, fitted 
out a privateer at Greenport, and, with a crew, captured 
several British prizes. The sequel to this incident is rather 
novel. In the war with Great Britain of 1812, Midshipman 
Hardy of the Revolution had risen in rank, and was a British 
Commodore. He had command of a British fleet, that 



63 
sailed through Long Island Sound, and at one time, anchor- 
ed in Huntington Bay. No British forces landed here, but 
they destroyed and captured all the American vessels within 
reach. Capt. Nathan Conklin (the grandfather of Nathan 
B. and Joseph K. Conkhn, of this village) was sailing a 
fast sloop, the " Amazon," owned by Judge Potter, from 
Hiintington to Albany, when she was caj^tured by Com. 
Hardy's fleet in the Bay. On board of the " Amazon " was 
a nephew of Judge Potter, a young man named Henry 
Williams, or as he was afterwards more familiarly known in 
this village, " Uncle Harry Williams," who did not surren- 
der very gracefully ; in fact, he d d the British, their 

flag and their Commodore, in no very measured terms. The 
consequence was, that Com. Hardy put him in irons, kept 
him a prisoner on board of his ship, and threatened to send 
him to Halifax. Judge Potter, on hearing of the capture 
of his sloop, ransomed her and went on board of Hardy's 
ship to look after young Williams. His astonishment may 
be imagined when he recognized Com. Hardy as the young 
midshipman of the Kevolution, whom his mother had 
nursed and doctored years before in Huntington. A mu- 
tual recognition took place, and upon learning that Henry 
Williams was the nephew of Judge Potter, he was at once 
released. The next day Hardy gave a grand dinner on his 
flag-ship in Huntington Bay, w^hen Judge Potter, under a 
flag of truce, w^as dined with all the honors, and a glowing 
tribute to the memory of his mother, who had passed 
away. 

Judge Potter's memory remains with the people of Hun- 
tington, not only by his pure hfe, but also by his noble be- 
quest to the Church and to the Himtington Union School, 
knowai as the " Potter Fund." --" 

Before closing, I want to vindicate the Town of Hun- 
tington from the charge I have heard made by those who 
have never investigated the matter, but w*ho have drawn 
wrong conclusions from the unfortunate fact that Hunting- 
ton was within the British lines, that the people of Hun- 
tington were not in sympathy with the patriot cause. It is 



64 

true tliat there were some Tories in Huntington, as there 
were in almost every town in the land, bnt they were few 
in number. The Town, by its general meeting at the early 
stages of the Revolution, as we have seen, jDut itself on 
record by its firm and patriotic resolutions. It was not the 
fault of our people that they were abandoned, from the ne- 
cessities of war, by the American army, to the fate of a con- 
quered community, after the Battle of Long IslancJ in 
August, 1776 : nor is it strictly true that the Town Com- 
mittee recanted and disavowed their previous actions, and 
disowned the authority of the Continental Congress, at the 
behest of the British commander. It is true that a form of 
recantation was drawn up and sent to each town in the 
County by the British military authorities to be signed, 
and it was generally signed — not voluntarily — but under 
compulsion ; but so far as this Town is concerned only one 
man signed, it. A large majority of the members of our 
Town Committee fled to Connecticut, joined the rebels 
there, and never signed any revocation or disavowal of their 
proceedings. 

There is overwhelming evidence of the fact that the peo - 
pie of Huntington were at heart in full sympathy with the 
Patriot cause. Some of the wealthiest inhabitants loaned 
money to the Congress. Major Brush was despatched on 
a secret mission by Gov. Clinton to raise a loan of specie in 
this Town and County in 1780. He and Capt. Rogers, two 
brothers Conklin, Capt. Ketcham, Timothy Williams and 
Abraham Legget were on this mission when they were 
overtaken by the British near Smithtown. Legget and 
Williams escaped in a swamp and re-crossed to Connecticut 
in one of Capt. Brewster's whale boats, which Washington 
kept cruising in the Soxuid. Capt. Ketcham was killed. 
Major Brush, the Conklins and Capt. Rogers were taken 
prisoners. 

In an advertisement published March 10, 1779, headed 
" Caution to Travelers," it is reported that a " party of 
rebels have a place of resort at Bread and Cheese Hollow, 
on a by road leading from the houses of two men in re- 



65 
bellion, viz.: Nathaniel Piatt and Tlios. Treadwell to that 
of the noted Sam. Phillips, near the Branch. They extend 
tlieir operations along the road from said Phillips to the 
well known Piatt Carll's. They are said to be commanded 
by a rebel Major Briish," of Huntington. It is further 
stated that the rebels who make frequent incursions from 
Connecticut, are harbored and supplied with provisions and 
intelligence by their above named confederates. 

In Gaine's Mercury, Sept. 14, 1778, it is stated : " Last 
Saturday, sundry inhabitants of Huntington were brought 
to our jail for piloting the rebels, in their different excur- 
sions from Connecticut on Long Island." 

From a report from a British vessel, Nov. 28, 1778, it is 
learned : " We have cleared the Bay of the piratical crew 
that infested it (alluding to American privateers), and look 
upon the greater part of the inhabitants to be disaffected 
to Government, and believe they give every intelligence, as 
well as subsistence, to the rebel party." 
. A "Loyal subject" writes, under date of June 9, 1779, 
from Suffolk County : " Since the departure of S. Wm. 
Ersldne, and the troops under his command, from this place, 
we have been continually plundered, both by land and 
water, by a set of rebels." 

The N. Y. Merctiry (Gaine's) gives an account of affairs 
in Huntington, June 28, 1779, in which it is averred " the 
rebellioiis part of the inhabitants in this Town, Avho were 
kept in awe, while the troops were stationed east of us, are 
now become more insolent than ever, and publicly threaten 
to have all the loyalists carried off to Connecticut. The 
principal of these miscreants (rebels), are Nathaniel Wil- 
liams, Eliphalet Chichester, Stephen Kelsey, John Brush, 
Jonas Eogers, Marlboro' Burtis and Israel Wood, several of 
whom smuggled goods out of New York to this place, for 
the sole purpose of suj)plying the rebels in Connecticut." 
The British troops while here, were subject to a very 
annoying species of guerilla warfare. If one or two of them 
separated from their forces, they were found dead in some 



66 

by-road. It was dangerous for tliem to leave camp except 
in companies. Ezekiel Wicks shot a Light Dragoon at the 
foot of the hill near Piatt Carll's, where his body was found. 
Another was shot, in what is now called " Shoemaker Lane," 
and his body lay in the road for a whole day, before it was 
discovered. They were ambuscaded in the woods, and 
otherwise destroyed, whenever the rebel inhabitants were 
furnished with opportunities to annihilate the enemies of 
their country. 

The young patriots of Huntington were wont to hide 
along the roadside in the woods at " Mutton Hollow " and 
" pick off " the British soldiers, whenever they were not in 
too great force. Some of the British officers were accustomed 
to come from Lloyd's Neck to the village, on horseback, 
and to return in the night, usually by the road past Capt. 
Squier's house (now I. Watts Roe's). The young Hun- 
tingtonians would run a rope across the road, tied to a stout 
tree, and then secrete themselves in adjoining woods. When 
the British officers came galloping along at full speed in the 
dark, their horses would run into the rope, fetch up sudden- 
ly, and tumble their riders upon the ground, when the 
young men would rush from their place of concealment, 
capture the officers, and convey them to the Harbor, where 
rebel whale boats were in waiting, to take them, as prisoners, 
across the Sound. And if any farther testimony is wanted 
to show that Huntington was the hotbed of rebellion in 
1776, we can tui'n to the expressions of Col. J. G. Simcoe, 
of the British Queen's Rangers. Complaint was made to 
his superior officer by some of the inhabitants of Hunting- 
ton, that he gave no receipts for the stock, provisions and 
forage, seized by his orders. In his reply, which I have 
before me, he says : " I did not give receipts to a great 
number of people on account of their rebellious pi*inciples, 
or absolute disobedience of the general orders. The inhab- 
itmits of Huntington came under both descriptions." And 
Maj. Gen. DeReidesel writes to Brig. Gen. DeLancey, un- 
der date of Brooklyn, July 16th, 1781, praising the conduct 
of the Queens County militia, in assisting the British Lieut. 



67 
Col. Upham, at Lloyd's Neck, but adds : " It grieves me to 
be under the necessity of exchidlng from this number the 
Huntington Militia ; but their unwilling conduct and ab- 
solute neglect in gimng any support to Lloyds Neck, too 
sensibly obliges me to it." 

Their service, such as it was, was always a forced, reluc- 
tant, sullen and resisting one ; for their hearts were with 
their countrymen of the American army, and outside of the 
British lines, in which their hard lot lay. 

Many superficial observers overlook the fact that the 
British officers /orce^ the mihtia colonels and captains, as 
well as the constables, to promulgate their orders to the 
inhabitants, to fui-nish forage, and perform labor on the 
forts. Instead of giving their orders directly to the inhab- 
itants of Huntington, the British officers gave them to the 
local militia officers and constables, and forced them to 
serve such orders on the people and to execute them. Many 
of these orders are in existence. I read one as a sample 
of all : 

Huntington, ¥ov. 26th, 1782. 

By virtue of an order from Lieut. Col. Thompson, you must Imedi- 
ately warn all the Carpenters whose names are undermentioned, to ap- 
pear without delay with their tools to labour on the Barraclis, on Failure 
of which rm undrr an obligation to return tlieir names Tmediately ; 
and must appear every moniinof by 8 o'clock or they will not be 
Credited for a Day's work, and must not go away till Dismissed. 

PHILLIP CONKLING, Ensign. 

To Sergeant Nath'l. Brush. 

The names of the carpenters api^ended aie : Hubbard 
Conkling, Sam'l. Haviland, John Morgan, Kichard Rogers, 
Benjamin Brush, Isaac Selah, John Wheelei', Isaac Wood 
and Daniel Higbee. 

Nothing could be more unjust than to impute sympathy 
with the Royal cause, to the militia officers and constables 
of Huntington, by reason of finding their names appended 
to such orders. They had no choice. They were with'n 
British lines, under the British yoke, and were compelled 
to obey orders of British officers for the time being, or suffer 
imprisonment, plunder and death. 



68 

Col. Piatt Conkliiig, of Huntingtou, and Col. Pbineas 
Fanning, of Southold, were two of such officers, who were 
occasionally compelled to promulgate orders of the British 
commanders to the people. In a report of Col. Henry B. 
Livingston to Gen. Washington, nnder date of Saybrook, 
October 14, 177G, he states that Colonels Conkling and 
Fanning were ordered to be seized with their papers. It 
seems the patriots misunderstood their situation, and 
planned an expedition to secretly seize them and carry them 
across the Sound, supposing that they were voluntarily 
acting with the British. Col. Conkling was seized and ex 
amined ; no i^apers were found on him, and ui)on explain- 
ing his situation, was at once released and allowed to return 
to Long Island. Col. Fanning was also seized, but he was 
permitted to go before the Provincial Convention and 
" clear his character," which he did, to the full satisfaction 
of the patriot leaders. [A^Dplause.] In this connection, it 
may also be stated that not a farm nor an estate in this 
Township was forfeited by law, by reason of adherence to 
the British Crown. These, with other facts of a similar 
character, are sufficient to show that the hearts of the peo- 
ple of Huntington were with the Patriots ; that although 
they were siibdued and held in subjection by force, they 
took every occasion, at the risk of their property and their 
lives, to assist the cause of their country. 

A full account of their sufferings during the Revolution, 
can never be given. No public press has recorded them. 
No traditions can do them justice. The men of that day 
and generation have passed away ; and no Clio, with pen 
in hand, has left the details of their local deeds. 

There is a limited record, preserved in the Town Clerk's 
office, which, to a slight degree, serves to show the losses 
of Huntington's inhabitants during the war. 

Sir Guy Cai'leton, in 1783, instituted a board of Commis- 
sioners for the object of adjusting such demands and claims 
against the British army, as had not been paid. The people 
of Huntington, whose losses and damages had never been 



69 
settled, made oiit their bills and vouchers, and swore to 
them before a magistrate of the Town, (Zophar Piatt) for 
the piu'pose of presenting them to this commission, but the 
Commissioners sailed for England, without giving them any 
attention, and the people of Huntington never obtained 
any compensation for their losses. These bills and vouchers 
do not probably represent one fourth part of the actual 
losses. They fill a large volume. There ai'e over three 
hmidred inhabitants who made out their accounts of losses, 
consisting chiefly of horses, cattle and stock, seized and 
stolen ; houses, barns, fences and wood burned and de- 
stroyed ; furniture, clothing, blankets, silver spoons and 
other ware stolen ; teams of horses and oxen impressed into 
service, and other similar charges. The total amount of 
the bills is £7,249, 9s, 6d. The amount of proj^erty stolen 
and destroyed in the Town, during the war, must have 
been about $150,000, and is estimated in the Town records 
at £21,383. 

As Huntington, in common with the other Towns in Suf- 
folk Comity, had been drained of her resources, both by 
the British and American military forces, during the Revo- 
lution, and was " as a torch on fire at both ends," so after 
the war, it was reserved to New York State to commit a 
final and gross act of injustice against the people of this 
Town, and of Suffolk County. It was the misfortune of our 
l^eople, as our native historiali, Silas Wood, has well said, 
and not their fault, that they were disarmed by force and 
in subjection to the enemy, instead of being in the tented 
field against them. So far as lay in their power, as we have 
seen, they always aided the patriot cause. They were 
classed and maltreated as rebels. With their intimate ac- 
quaintance with our Bays and Harbors, they rendered good 
service to the American soldiers from Connecticut, who 
visited our shores to capture British vessels and British 
officers. They carried on a secret trade with New York 
with their coasting craft, at great risk, and supplied the 
rebel army with provisions. Their predatory and enter- 
prising warfare alarmed the " Royalists " and kej^t them in 



70 

constant fear. To be a pal riot, within the lines of the Brit- 
ish army and in the face of the British flag, required strong 
moral conrage, and a tirm faith in the justice of the cause. 
And yet, notwithstanding all their privations, losses and 
sufferings, the Legislature of the State of New York dis- 
honored their power, violated justice, and oppressed the 
peojile of this County, by passing and enforcing an Act 
May 6, 1784, under which Long Island was made to -pay a 
tax of £37,000, (£10,000 of which was paid by Suffolk 
County) as a compensation to other parts of the State, for 
not having been in a condition to take an active 2:)art in the 
war against England. This certainly was an abuse of power 
unworthy of the State, and stands as a foul blot upon the 
fair records of New York. [Applause.] 

There are many incidents connected with the revolution- 
ary period in Huntington, of which I have no time to speak. 
[A voice — give us some more.] 

Gen. Washington sent an order to Gen. Geo. Clinton 
Sept. 30, 1776, to take with him Lieut. Col. Hurlbut, and 
proceed immediately to Fairfield, and there in consultation 
with Gen. Lincoln, of Massachusetts Bay, Mr. Hobart of 
this State, and Col. Livingston, concert an expedition to 
Long Island. An expedition of men, vessels, and whale- 
boats under Cols. Livingston and Richmond, was fitted out 
to attack the British forces here in October, 1776, and every- 
thing was in readiness to sail across from the Connecticut 
shore to make the attack, but on the day before they were 
to start, they received orders from Washington to abandon 
the enterjjrise, as all their forces were needed elsewhere. 

In August, 1780, Sir Henry Clinton embarked a large 
British force at New York and proceeded to Huntington 
Baj^, on his way to Rhode Island, to make a combined at- 
tack with land forces on the American army. The squadron 
that anchored in our Bay consisted of the London, Bedford, 
Royal Oak, Prudent, Ameiica and Shrewsbury, with the 
Amphitrate Frigate. Washington received timely notice 
of the movement, which Sir Henry ascertained, and relin- 



71 
quished his project, on account of Washington's maneuvres. 

Young Nathan Hale, a promising American officer, sent 
as a spy within the British lines, was captured on East 
Neck, near the residence of Titus Conklin, and was executed 
by the British. 

Gen. Silliman, an Amei'ican officer, and an ancestor of 
the editor of the Long Islander, was captui'ed in Connec- 
ticut and brought over to Lloyd's Neck as a prisoner by the 
British. The Yankees, in revenge, captured a wealthy Tory 
of Queens County, and he was afterwards exchanged for 
the Tory ; the exchange being made in the middle of the 
Sound, opijosite our shores. 

Among the prisoners taken by the British, during the 
revolutionary war, from Huntington, I find the names of 
Silas Sammis, Esa Whitman, Jacob Lawrence, Nathaniel 
Skudder, Henry Smith, Michael Veal, Joshua Rogers, Cor- 
nelius Conklin, Jesse Brush, Capt. Rogers, Henry Smith, 
Lieutenant Farley, Solomon Ketcham, John Smith, David 
Ralph, Henry Scudder, Piatt Carll, Rev. Joshua Hartt,*and 
Zebulon Piatt, who was carried on board of the British 
vessel, the " Swan " in December, 1777, and there saw the 
Church Bell, which the British had stolen, and it was from 
him, that the inhabitants learned its whereabouts^ 

After the close of the war, and during his Presidency, 
Gen. Washington made a tour on Long Island, accomi^anied 
by a few of his officers. He rode in a coach, drawn by four 
grey horses, with riders. This coach is described as fol- 
lows : It was one of the best of its kind ; heavy and sub- 
stantial. The body and wheels were of cream color, with 
gilt moldings ; it Avas suspended upon leather straps resting 
upon iron springs. Portions of the sides of the upper part, 
as well as the front and rear, were furnished with neat 
green Venetian blinds, and the remainder was inclosed with 
black leather curtains. The latter might be raised so as to 
make the coach quite open in fine weather. The blinds 
afforded shelter from the storm, while allowing ventilation. 
The coach was lined with bright black leather, and the 



72 

driver's seat was trimmed with the same. The axles were 
wood, and the cnrved reaches iron. Ui^on the door Wash- 
ington's arms were handsomely emblazoned, having- scroll 
ornaments issuing from the space between the shield and 
the crest ; and below was a ribbon with his motto upon it 
— " Exitus acta prohaty Upon each of the four panels' of 
the coach was an allegorical picture emblematic of one of 
the seasons. These were beautifully painted iipon cojDper 
by Cipriani, an Italian artist. The ground was a very dark 
green — so dark that it appeared nearly black ; and the alle- 
gorical ligures were executed in bronze, in size nine and a 
half by ten inches. This coach passed into the hands of 
Mr. Custis at the sale of the General's effects after the 
death of Mrs. Washington, and was later broken up and 
the fragments made into walking sticks, picture frames, 
and snuff-boxes, which were the stock in trade of 
charity fairs, and realized more in this way than its original 
cost. 

Washington drove as far as Patchogue, on the south side, 

dining at Zebulon Ketcham's at Huntington South. He 
got a lunch of oysters at a shop at Patchogue, of the fine 
quality for which that place is still noted. From there he 
crossed over to Smithtown, and returned through Hun- 
tington, Oyster Bay, Hempstead Harbor and Flushing. At 
Huntington he stopped at the Inn, then kept by Gilbert 
Piatt, and the only one in the village. The old men and 
veterans came in flocks, for miles around, to see the Father 
of his Country, who- had a pleasant smile and good word 
for them all. From the lips of a venerable lady, now passed 
away, who was present, and assisted in preparing the dinner 
given to Washington in Hiuitington, I am enabled to give 
several incidents of his visit. At his request, there was no 
formality or parade. He looked and acted as a plain citizen, 
without ostentation. He said he wanted to have a quiet 
time, and to see the people. He showed he was a man of 
good taste, for he not only kissed the little girls who came 
to see him, but some of the larger ones as well. [Laughter.] 
One little boy, who had heard so much about Washington, 



73 
and venerated bis imme, was unable to see him, in the 
crowd that surrounded him, as he stood on the " Green " 
in front of the Inn. His mother took him in her arms, and 
as he saw Washington" for the first time, he exclaimed : 
" Why, mother, he's only a man !" The remark was over- 
heard by Washington, who seemed pleased, and rephed, 
" Yes, my child, only a mere man." He gave the boy a 
silver dollar as a memento of the occasion. Fifteen sat 
down to the dinner, with Washington at the north end of 
the table. He was affable and entertained all as if he were 
the host instead of the guest. The chair he sat in, is now 
in possession of Dr. Wm. D. Woodend of this village, and 
is here upon this platform (pointing to chair). [Applause.] 
I think it was John Quincy Adams, who said : " Posterity 
delights in details." If I do not trespass too much upon 
the proprieties of this occasion, I will for the sake of the 
large number of ladies present, give the Bill of Fare of the 
dinner to Washington. It consisted of Oysters, baked 
Striped Bass, a monster round of Beef, stuffed Veal, roast 
Turkey, Chicken pie, with all the vegetables of the season, 
and various kinds of preserves— a very plain and substantial 
repast. . 

After dinner, Washington visited the old Burymg Hill, 

and viewed the remains of the British fort, and the sur- 
rounding country, expressing himself as charmed with the 
beauty of the scenery. He remained in Huntington over 
night, and started off in the morning, going west. Some 
of the people happened to be working on the highway, and 
he paid them the customary contribution, which they laugh- 
ingly levied on him. He stopped and lunched at Capt. 
Daniel Yoimgs, at Oyster Bay Cove. 

When they went farther west, an old Quaker farmer was 
ploughing by the road side, with several teams of oxen 
hitched to one plough. Washington stopped to look at 
him. One of the officers told the Quaker that was Wash- 
ington. " George Washington, eh !" said the Quaker, strik- 
ing his plow deep in the furrow, as he came about at the 
eml, " How dost thee do, Geoige ? Whoa hoy ! gee up ! 



74 

^7on^ / " and on he went regardless of his distinguished 

visitor, who smiled and drove off. [Laughter.] 

But I must follow the example of the Quaker, and drive 
on to the end of my fuiTow. 

From these brief and shadowy glimpses of the past, we 
have seen that Huntington has a record, loyal to liberty, 
and that oui's is a Town to be proud of. Its crowned hills, 
and its glorious valleys, its rocks of strength and its clear 
ilowuig waters — its records of brave hearts and strong arms 
and noble minds, alike call up thrillmg memories, upon this 
Centennial Day. To-day we cannot realize the desolation 
of Huntington m 1776. Instead of death, of sorrow and of 
gloom, we see around us plumy harvests nodding and 
brightening on all our fields, j^leasant hamlets and villages 
increasing in wealth and population throughout the time- 
honored old Town ; our waters reflecting the emblems of 
commerce ; our streets alive with the activities of trade ; 
oru" shops reverberating the cheering sounds of honest toil, 
and our hill-sides echoing to the " song of the reaper." 
[Applause.] 

Instead of the humble school, taught in the kitchen of 
Dr. Potter's dwelling, by Capt. Titus Bennett, who sailed a 
sloop in Summer and taught children rude elements of edu- 
cation in Winter, one hundred years ago, we point with 
pride, to our magnificent Academy, and to oiu- other schools 
throughout the Town, with their talented and efficient 
teachers, and their roll call of thousands. Instead of one 
small edifice devoted to the expoimding of christian doc- 
trine, our numerous spires point heavenward, to direct the 
destiny of man. 

In all the elements of civilization, oui* glorious old Town 
has kept apace with the progress of the Centui'y. Here 
may the sons and daughters of the men of '76, and all who 
have come with warm welcome, to dwell in this " valley of 
peace," with the young generation around us, remember 
the legends of liberty, and the songs of patriotism told and 
sung of the men of old, and may it be known in the history 



75 
of the futiu-e, that those whose Fathers fought and strug- 
gled, suffered and endui-ed for their country's freedom, 
were of .the chiefest to maintain the columns of its strength 
and to deepen its imperishable foundations ! 

We will not deplore them, the days that are past ; 
The gloom of misfortune is over them cast ; 
They were lengthened by sorrow and sullied by care. 
Their griefs were too many, their joys were too rare ; 
Yet now that their shadows are on us no more. 
Let us welcome the prospect that brightens before ! 

[Applause.] 



The large meeting at the Grove was i^resided over by 
Stephen W. Gaines, Esq., Chairman, one of the leading 
and zealous originators of the Centennial Celebration in 
Huntington, who, in the due order of exercises made the 
following address : 
ADDRESS OF STEPHEN W. GAINES, Esq.: 

Fellow Citizens : — " Superfluous lags the yeterau on the stage." 
So spake the master miud of cemuries past. It is true of the individ- 
ual. No matter how aspiring in youth, or successful in manhood, age 
gives place to a new generation. It is only ideas that live. Posterity 
may do justice to the name, but personality is forgotten. It is the 
same with nations. Government is but the embodiment of an idea. 
If the idea applied is false, the nation suffers and both ultimately per- 
ish. If tlie idea is true, both flourish and endure. 

" Truth criislied to earth will rise again, 
The immortal .years olGoil are hers ; 
But error, wounded, writhes in pain 
And dies amid her worshippers." 

History, in chronicling the lives of nations, pauses to mark eras of 
thought. She paused a hundred years ago to mark the birth of an idea, 
and she pauses again to-day to mark its fi'uition. Its material produc- 
tions are collected in its Exposition at Philadelphia. The men and 
mines thereby represented are the result. The multitude from every 
land, participating, attest it trae. It began and was developed in small 
communities, each of which, to-day, gathers up and preserves its own 
record. It is our business to do so here ; to go back to the times of 
the first dwellers in this village, do justice to their virtues and restore 
their personality. 

Two himdred and fifty years ago men of education, refinement, and 
accustomed to afflnence, with their families, crossed the ocean and 



77 
made their houle^l m the wilderness. The germ of the idea impelling 
them was the right of worshipping God according to the dictates of 
conscience ; of having civil government justly administered. They 
called the place where they settled New Engla,nd. A part of them 
were located nearly opposite these shores and were called the Hartford 
Colony. About thirty yeai's afterwards a portion of them crossed the 
Sound, approached the forest-fnnged headlands, explored the beautiful 
harbors and landed. Upon a fairer scene the sun never rose. It was 
a fit casket for the gem Liberty. They abode there and called the 
place Huntington. [Applause.] Affectionately remembering their 
old homes, they called their new ones by the same names — ISTew Eng- 
land, Hartford and Huntingtcm. They were of common origin, feel- 
ing and tast(", and the only accessions were families of like character. 
No emigration brought innovation. In time they were bound by the 
ties of general relationship. The first charter incorporating them as a 
Town was in 1666. The first temtnry, purchased fi-om the Indians, 
extended from Cold Spring Harbor to Cow Harbor. Here for the next 
hundred years they made and administered their own laws, and were, 
for all practical purposes, a State within themselves. Their principal 
intercourse was with their neighbors across the Sound. The isolation 
of that day in a measure continues. 

We would think, with om* present means of travel, books, newspa- 
pers and appliances, thai a people so situated would become unlettered, 
and return to a rude state of society. That such was not the case is 
witnessed by their condition when one hundred years had elapsed. 
The reason may be found in tracing the earliest steps taken by them. 
They erected their first church in 1665. The school was contem- 
poraiy and the Bible was a standard book therein. Educated men 
taught, and were seldom changed. From 1676, until his death in 
1731, the Rev. Eliphalet Jones was their minister. In 1723 the 
Rev. Ebenezer Prime was his assistant, and as such and as his successor 
was their minister until the commencement of the Revolution, a period 
of more than fifty years each. With such provision for the living, 
respect for the dead is a natural consequence. With pious care they 
selected for their last resting place the most beautiful and command- 
ing eminence in their midst, where though dead they were still speak- 
ing. The close of the first hundred years presented a people moral in 
their lives, educated to the extent of the literature of the age, loving 
their homes and customs, unanimous in hatred of oppression, prosper- 
ous in their possessions, shy of strangers, but hospitable on acquaint- 
ance. These traits continued for the next fifty years, and are not yet 
lost. It was from this and similar communities that sprang the men 
who conceived and maintained the idea that freedom is a universal 
birthi-ight. [Applause.] 

in 1776, New York had become the must important of the thirteen 



states, Long Island the most important part of New York, and Hun- 
tington one of the most important towns on the Island. She held a 
no less important position on the great question of the day, and her 
people early accepted the "self-evident truth" "That resistance to 
tyrants is obedience to God." [Applause.] No hearts heat more ex- 
ultingly, when the farmers at Lexington " fired the shot heard round 
the world." Aud when the old bell, in the State House at Philadelphia, 
pealed forth on the announcement of the idea, " That all men are cre- 
ated free and equal, aud are endowed by their Creator with certain 
inalienable rights," none more eagerly accepted the pledge then given 
to maiutain it. They helped maintain it in the weary march, and ou 
the stricken field. [Applause.] They maintamed it in the sanctuary 
of their homes. The King's troops were m possession of the Island ; 
a garrison was established here; loyalty to the Crown was rewarded; 
Toryism to spy and plunaer encouraged ; sabmission was safety and 
protection. They scorned the terms, so soldiers were quartered in 
their houses, crops seized or wantonly destroyed, orchards cut down, 
fences burned, the cherished Burying Ground converted into a barrack, 
the graves leveled, the tombstones broken and applied to ignoble uses, 
the old chm'ch dismantled, pews and cushions given way to a riding 
school for cavalry, a block-house eoustructed with its timber, the min- 
istrations of the aged pastor suspended, and the house of the " old 
rebel " — as he was called — made their quarters. These particular mci- 
dents have been recorded by his son, the Kev. Nathaniel S. Prime, in 
his History of Long Island, with simdar acts of sacrilege in other parts 
of the Island. "There were no Sundays in Revolutionary times." 
After a seven year's struggle the idea triumphed. To tear down what 
remained of the old church and carry off" the bell was the last blow 
given. Of all the actors in these outrages one is particularly remem- 
bered — " Rumford," and of all the positions they occupied here, but 
one bears the name they gave it — " Gallows Hill." 

In 1783 the foe evacuated and Huntington took her place under 
" Excelsior," in the Empire State. Desolation had not broken the 
spint of her people. 

" Even ui tliGir aslies lived their wonted flre '' 

[Applause.] 
In 1784 they rebuilt the church. It was among the first, and is like 
to become the oldest monument of the times. They planted the 
Liberty Pole beside it. In 1794 they erected the Huntmgton 
Academy, directly opposite. This was then the second institution of 
the kind m the County, aud fourth in the State. They established a 
Library of about two hundred and fifty volumes, some of which, in 
their quaint sheep-skin coverings, are still preserved in the Union 
School. They raised again the grassy mounds and restored the broken 
monuments in the cemetery. These were so numerous that strangers 



79 
wondered at the greatness of the mortality; they read the insciiptions 
and wondered that so many lived so long. 

Fifty years ago about three score of the old houses first erected were 
standing ; now scarce a dozen remain. In nearly every case, the old 
site has been again built on. Fifty years ago there survived in middle 
life, as heads of families, the direct representatives of nearly aU the 
first settlers. Fifty years ago the Fourth of July processions were 
frequently marshalled by Col Isaac Conklin, (the grandfather of our 
young friend, Douglas Conklin, the reader of the Declaration) as before 
that by his father, Col. Tmiothy Conklin. He is m his right place 
to-day. In those processions the Revolutionary veterans had the 
place of honor. Alas! they and their compeers now live but as a 

memory. 

" riieir liones are dust, 

And their good swords are rust, 

Their souls are with ilieir God, we trust." 

[Applause.] 

What were the names of these first families— these natives of Hun- 
tington? I could call the roll of a hundred years ago, but forbeai. 
You will find them mscnbed on the marbles of yonder hill. They are 
repeated, by the thousand, in the possessors of this fair heritage. They 
are on the committees ; they are on this platform ; this audience is 
largely composed of them. 

" Witliiu tlio bounds of Annaudale 

The gentle Johnstoues ride ; 

They have Ijeen here a thousand years, 

A thousand more they'll liide." 

[Applause.] 

So be it with these families. And why not ? They live in the great 
idea of a free government, based on a free pulpit, a free school, a free 
press and a free ballot— a government 

'■ Vital in every part, 
Tliat can liut with annihilation die ;" 
many in one, and one for all; and that one is ever disclosed to lead in 
times of peril. The young surveyor, carrying his chain in the Yirginia 
wilderness and following Braddock on the Indian trail, is the George 
Washington of 1776. The orphan lad, wandering barefoot throu«;h 
the pine barrens of the Carolinas, is the Andrew Jackson of 1812. 
[Applause J The unknown and friendless boy learning his letters by 
marks on the sand, and on the bark of trees, is the Abraham Lincoln 
of 1861. [Applause.] Shall the idea live? I see the response m 

every eye. 

•• Westward th'2 star of Empire ta'-es its course ; 
Time's l)est and noblest effort is the last." 

[Applause.] 



80 



ADDRESS OF Hon. HENRY J. SCUDDER : 

My Friends : — My reverend friend/ adopting the order of the pub- 
lished anuouncenients, presents me to deliver an " address." I should 
be humiliated if you accepted this term " address " m its formal sense, 
for I am here to salute you only in the earnestness and simplicity that 
a life-long friendship may warrant; to join in the ceremonies of the 
Any as a citizen, and one of birthright, but not as an orator. I have no 
formal expressions and no elaborate utterances, but I cannot shrink 
from the duty so kindly assigned me, although its discharge may not 
meet the demands of the occasion. I greet you to-day with no ordinary 
emotions. We are on historic ground. Every glance touches upon a 
memorable scene— a sacred spot. Here back of us rises the monumen- 
tal hill, twice consecrated. Consecrated by the repose of our honored 
dead ; consecrated by the vows of resistance to oppression that were 
made in the enforced spectacle of its desecration. There the towering 
spire recalls the debasement of the temple by the soldier. The scene 
is indeed inspiring — this vast assemblage, this gathering of represent- 
ative pursuits and trades, this garnering of loveliness and innocence, 
and all illumined by the golden day as with a special glory. And here, 
in the shade of memories that vary as they reach backward, we assem- 
ble to hail the Hundredth anniversary of a Declaration that has raised 
from political degradation more than half the christian people of the 
world, and has even penetrated the recesses of barbarism, and carried 
some forms of civilization with it there; a Declaration that advanced 
no new principle, yet set forth a principle in a manner and under cir- 
cumstances compelling consideration, respect and adoption, by those 
who sincerely and intelligently consult the interests of their fellow- 
men. A Government followed this Declaration, while misfortune and 
failure attended its earlier similitudes. There are reasons for this dif- 
ference in fortune. The act of resistance by the Colonies, regarded as 
force alone, presented in a merely reproduced foi-m what had occurred 
In every age and every latitude where robust will and active intellect 
existed, and asserted the rule of political equality. The early historic 
systems of government permitted slight recognition of individual rights. 
The Patriarchal system differed little from pure autocracy. The No- 
madic life forced and perpetuated tyranny as a protection. It had no 
leisure for deliberation or election. It needed positive and acknowl- 
edged command, and when rest and settlement followed uneasy wan- 
derings and hot conflicts, its people were so far subdued by habits of 
allegiance that rulers and chieftains transmitted their titles and power 
as readily as their armor. As groups were composed either by con- 
quest or treaty, and assumed the proportions of nationalities, the pride 



81 
of the mouarch intensified, and his repression of insubordination with 
it. With the ancients conquest was destruction ; language, art, man- 
ners, all that could characterize a people, fell before its victors. 
Thought is elastic and constant, and aided by moral energies, surely 
elevates its subject. It may be numbed mto torpor, but is quickly re- 
animated. The settlement of the colonies occurred when christian Eu- 
rope was in a condition of great unrest ; when statesmen and priests 
were thinking aloud and challenging forms and habits both in the 
Church and the State. It was easy to suppress the thinkers, but not 
so with their thoughts. These gathered in volume and spread every- 
where. As the well springs of civil and religious liberty were choked 
by edicts and proscriptions, they sought new channels and broke out in 
distant places. Upon the shores of the JSTew World they were secure. 
The permaueut settlers of our country were possessed of great spirit 
and independence, and both qualities were enlarged by the necessities 
of colonial life. A nation existing in seclusion, denying communica- 
tion, and dependent for development upon inherent resom-ces, substi- 
tutes tradition for improvement, and habit for thought. Philosophy 
teaches that the ocean at perfect rest would lose its purity. Tides and 
currents and eddies must agitate it ; tempests and whirlwinds stir it to 
its depths in order that it preserve and continue its vast functions in 
the economy of Nature. We are like the sea in this respect. Passions, 
energies, inclinations, sweeping over and thi'ough us, diversify in parts 
but strengthen in the mass. Our forefathers had the full advantages 
of national diversities. The austere Puritan landed upon the rugged 
coast of N'ew England, the Cavalier stretched out his estates in Virginia, 
the thrifty Hollander was in New York, the Swede in the Delawares, 
and the Catholic in Maryland was a neighbor to the Quaker of Penn- 
sylvania, the Huguenot was planting in South Carolina; thus the bold 
hardy races of northern Europe were represented. Some generations 
must pass along through exposures and suffering in order to work out 
the certain results of civil equality, but in all these there was no lack 
of the elements essential to the establishment of a Government upon a 
new and better system than that supporting those of the Old World. 
And here lay the superior opportunities of the colonists. They were 
drilled in the military art, iuured to hardships, free to think and main- 
tain their thought; so remote from the great powers that they need 
fear no hasty combinations, and possessed of a land surpassing in fer- 
tility and healthfulness the dreams of its early explorers. Opposed 
however to the scheme of success, based upon these conditions, was 
the settled sentiment of the mother country, and of all strong goveni- 
ments. This sentiment, largely shared by colonial leaders, favored a 
titular establishment, and a throne above it, and was intolerant of pop- 
ular participation in the administration of affairs. Then too, the popu- 
lation of the colonies was mainly on the seaboard and easily assailed — 



82 

the back country possessed by savages quick to spring upon the tres- 
passers on their soil. These were the conditions when the Congress ot 
1774 convened. History presents no similar assemblage. There the 
Congregationalist of Massachusetts invited the prayer ol! the formalist ; 
there the cultured Catholic of Maryland sat by the plain garbed Qua- 
ker ; there were the mechanic and the cavalier, and there with a dignity 
that commauded respect, and a modesty that won admiration, was he, 
the descendant of a loug hue of soldiers and scholars, he whose child- 
hood was as exemplary as the virtues of the best of mothers, he whose 
youth was hardened by frontier exposures, whose prudeuce turned the 
consuming shafts of destruction from the gallant Braddock, George 
Washington, of whom it has beeu so beautifully said that Heaven de- 
creed him to be childless that he might be the Father of his Country. 
[ Applause. ] There Patrick Henry struck the key note of equality : 
•' I am not a Virginian, but an American.'.' 

A moral sublimity, unsurpassed in some aspects, crowns this Con- 
gress, and leads to the question whether its successor could claim supe- 
rior grandeur. We must not pause to compare the two. The fearless 
action of this ensures the respect of European statesmen, and divides 
their policy. From its dissolution events crowded on and hurried the 
final step. Paul Revere rides through the gloom, and it is lighted by 
the sparks struck by his courser. The "embattled farmer fires the shot 
heard round the world." Washington receives his appointment as 
Commander, and bravely says, " I am embarked on a wide ocean, 
boundless in its prospect, and in which perhaps no safe harbor is to be 
found." Forces are arrayed, but yet no determination to indepen- 
dence, no prayer but for alleviation of sufiFering from harsh legislation. 
There is enough of sturdy thought in the right direction, but it is not 
compacted. 

Washington's sagacity early discovers the utter hopelessness of re- 
conciliation. Called to Congress, he urges absolute separation. Con- 
gress rises to the supreme demand. There is a closed session and in- 
tense debate. All over the land anxious groups depend upon its de- 
cision. The patriot pale and resolute, the loyalist sneering and doubt- 
ful. The resolution is reached and it is committed to a few to furnish 
reasons to mankind for its adoption. Thomas JeflFerson, one of the 
youngest of the representatives, but the most advanced in democratic 
principles, who in later life was among the best trusted of Washington's 
counsellors, furnished the reasons, and so excellently framed them in 
the Declaration that no suggestion of amendment occurred. 

On the 4th of July, 1776, this grand utterance received the sanction 
of Congress. Its announcement, to the young Nation it created, was 
singularly appropriate. As the last signature of those who pledged 
their " lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honors," to its maintenance 
was affixed, the great bell upon which was stamped " Proclaim liberty 



83 
throughout the hmcl, unto all the inhabitants thereof " swung forth the 
scriptural command and sent it " throughout the laud." The spirit of 
Freedom caught up the gladdening cry and down through the shadowy 
aisles of an hundred years it comes to us in perfected glory, for to-day 
there is liberty throughout all our land, and to all the inhabitants 
thereof. [Applause.] 

The sacrifices that followed the long years of hardships and doubt 
and agony, are known to all of us. They have been happily referred 
to by our learned chairman, and will be eloquently presented by the 
honorable gentleman who will follow me, and who springs from a line 
that shared them. 

And now, my friends, contemplating the heroism and devotion of 
those who founded a government upon a distinct and imtried system ; 
who gathr-red the loose thoughts and energies of other ages and band- 
ed them into the form of political equality, and so doing gave to civili- 
zation its noblest incentive, and to the world the loftiest example of 
faith in human virtue, shall we, to-day acknowledging and celebrating 
all this, and in the complete enjoyment of its gi-aud results and bless- 
ings, fail to measure the obligations thereby imposed upon us, and the 
duty that springs from those obligations. " Educate the people " 
writes Jeiferson from Paris as he witnesses the frenzy of a degraded 
peasantry, an ignorant under class, stnving for the overthrow of an op- 
pressive monarchy, and the establishment of a representative rule upon 
perfect equality. There is greater need of this injunction to-day than 
then. Great populations crowd upon our coasts and concentrate in 
cities. Diversities of race as well as nationalities meet us at every 
turn. Foreign politics still struggle resistiugly against our own. 
From the dangers of these conditions we cannot escape without the aid 
of a counteracting force. "We must spread intelligent moral education 
everywhere. We must prepare youth for the burdens of citizenship, 
and compel manhood to the fullest discharge of its demands. If 
eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty, certainly eternal labor is its 
duty. You who surrender yourselves to complaints against the exac- 
tions of government, or the blunders of legislation, vet give no moment 
to the consideration of your political duties — who abstain from action 
to correct the evils of which you murmur, are properly requited if they 
deeply afflict you. This is the penalty you owe for neglected citizen- 
ship. Let us renew our pledges to the State. Here where these children 
in robes of iunocence illustrate the purity we seek ; here where these 
maidens, surpassing in charms the dreams of the political enthusiast 
who idealized Liberty as a Goddess, symbolize the beauty of the genius 
of our institutions ; here where sturdy mnuhood revels in its pronounced 
strength, and age gives its benediction of approval, let us join in a vow 
to be ever faithful to the uuion of States and the flag thai shields us. 
Let us dedicate ourselves to the better work of the citizen, and resolve 
that our Institutions, our Policy, our I^ation, may be in all future times 
to the weary and suffering and oppressed of other realms as " Elvers of 
water in a dry place ; as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land," 



ffl« 



